Before we get into the Derek Dorsett signing, I encourage you to read this post from Puck Daddy’s Harrison Mooney from January 8th of this year: “The fighter-scorer is as rare as the 40-goal scorer, and almost as valuable“.
From the article:
Last year’s Boston Bruins were the quintessential example of what can happen if the players providing your toughness are versatile. It wasn’t just that Boston had guys that could drop the gloves — it’s that those guys were still plenty effective when they held onto their equipment.
The Bruins had two players finish in double digits in fighting majors in 2010-11 — Shawn Thornton and Gregory Campbell — and both those players finished in double digits in goals as well. Thornton had 10 goals and 14 majors; Campbell had 13 and 11.
Let me put into perspective how impressive this is: there were only seven players in the entire NHL that reached 10 goals and 10 majors in 2010-11, and Boston had two of them.
The other five, if you’re wondering, were Ryane Clowe (24 G, 12 MAJ), Brandon Prust (13 G, 18 MAJ), David Clarkson (12 G, 14 MAJ), Tim Jackman (10 G, 12 MAJ), and Steve Ott (12 G, 11 MAJ).
So, how many players in the 2011-2012 season reached 10 goals and 10 fighting majors? Three. Who were they?
Derek Dorsett, Wayne Simmonds and Chris Neil. Below is a chart of all 23 players with 10 or more fights, their penalty minutes, and how many goals they scored. I’ve also included salary information for the three players who achieved both 10 goals and 10 fights:
| Rk | Player | Team | GP | PIM | FM | G | 11-12 $ | 12-13 $ |
| 1 | Shawn Thornton | BOS | 81 | 154 | 20 | 5 | ||
| 2 | Brandon Prust | NYR | 82 | 156 | 20 | 5 | ||
| 3 | Derek Dorsett | CLB | 77 | 235 | 19 | 12 | $562K | $1.63M |
| 4 | Jared Boll | CLB | 54 | 126 | 18 | 2 | ||
| 5 | Zenon Konopka | OTT | 55 | 193 | 18 | 3 | ||
| 6 | Cody McLeod | COL | 75 | 164 | 17 | 6 | ||
| 7 | Brad Staubitz | MON | 62 | 121 | 15 | 1 | ||
| 8 | Matt Martin | NYI | 80 | 121 | 15 | 7 | ||
| 9 | Zac Rinaldo | PHI | 66 | 232 | 15 | 2 | ||
| 10 | Tim Jackman | CGY | 75 | 94 | 14 | 1 | ||
| 11 | Mike Rupp | NYR | 60 | 97 | 13 | 4 | ||
| 12 | Ryan Reaves | STL | 60 | 124 | 13 | 3 | ||
| 13 | Stu Bickel | NYR | 51 | 108 | 12 | 9 | ||
| 14 | Krys Barch | FLA | 51 | 114 | 12 | 2 | ||
| 15 | Chris Thorburn | WPG | 72 | 83 | 11 | 4 | ||
| 16 | George Parros | ANA | 46 | 85 | 11 | 1 | ||
| 17 | Jamal Mayers | CHI | 81 | 91 | 11 | 6 | ||
| 18 | Matt Hendricks | WAS | 78 | 95 | 11 | 4 | ||
| 19 | Mike Brown | TOR | 50 | 74 | 10 | 2 | ||
| 20 | Gregory Campbell | BOS | 78 | 80 | 10 | 8 | ||
| 21 | Wayne Simmonds | PHI | 82 | 114 | 10 | 28 | $1.75M | $1.75M |
| 22 | Kyle Clifford | LA | 81 | 123 | 10 | 5 | ||
| 23 | Chris Neil | OTT | 72 | 178 | 10 | 13 | $2M | $2M |
Both Simmonds and Neil just made the cut with 10 fights, meanwhile Dorsett’s 19 almost equaled the other two combined. Simmonds clearly won the goals scored category. Dorsett’s numbers are closer to Chris Neil who made almost four times as much in salary this season.
As the Puck Daddy article concludes:
Seven. Would you believe that it’s rarer to post 10 goals and 10 fights than to score 30 goals? There were twenty-nine 30-goal-scorers last season. Heck, fighter-scorers are almost as rare as 40-goal scorers, of which there were five.
And they’re almost as vital to deep, successful teams.
What the 2009-10 Chicago Blackhawks and the 2010-11 Boston Bruins have shown us is that there isn’t room in a Stanley Cup-winning lineup for a player that can’t take regular shifts. You need four complete lines that can score, as those teams boasted, and you simply can’t waste spots on one-dimensional pugilists.
Nowadays, if you want toughness (and you need toughness), you either get a guy who can fight andplay, or you willfully dress a flaw. Last I checked, the team that wins is the team with the fewest flaws, so starting with a one-flaw handicap is hardly efficient.
The fighter-scorer, however, very much is.
Yesterday the Blue Jackets extended Dorsett another 3 years at a cap hit of $1.63M per year.
Before you even dive into the intangibles and leadership Dorsett brings to this team, I think he has more than earned his extension as well as the raise that came with it. What do you think?