Dec 15, 2015; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere (53) celebrates scoring the game winning goal against the Carolina Hurricanes during overtime at Wells Fargo Center. The Flyers defeated the Hurricanes, 4-3 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Just a rookie, Shayne Gostisbehere of the Philadelphia Flyers is already one of the league’s best overtime players

There are certain things I probably don’t need to tell Philadelphia Flyers fans. One, is that Shayne Gostisbehere has been a star. Everybody loves Ghost (or Ghost Bear if you prefer). Two, is that the Flyers 3v3 play has been pretty crazy this year.

Diving into the stats might slightly revise that story. The Flyers’ overtimes haven’t been quite as crazy as you might think. The Flyers have certainly played a lot of overtimes, and are 10-5 in games decided during the overtime. They’ve seen their share of thrilling 3v3 goals (like last night), and they quite memorably played the NHL’s first ever 3v3 overtime against the Tampa Bay Lightning in a wild contest.

As measured by shot attempts per minute however, the Flyers are 8th in the NHL in shot attempts per minute during 3v3 play.

Change that measurement to goals per minute during 3v3, and the Flyers drop even lower, all the way down to 16th. So, maybe on the one hand, the Flyer’s aren’t quite as crazy in overtime as they might appear.

On the other hand, Ghost is as good as you imagine. For starters, it’s easy enough to point to Ghost’s 4 overtime goals. His 4 overtime goals are a record for an NHL rookie, and put him tied for second in the NHL this season. He is tied with Anze Kopitar and one behind Jonathan Toews. Each of those players are forwards who have played 18 more games than Ghost.

Specifically on 3v3 play, Ghost has 2 goals and 2 assists. His 2 goals put him tied for second among all NHL defensemen this season, and his 4 points put him tied for third among all defensemen. Not too shabby.

Things get crazy when you compare his numbers inside the Flyers, though. The Flyers have only scored during 3v3 with one of two defensemen on the ice; Ghost and the now-injured Michael Del Zotto. It gets downright cartoonish when you compare the rates of shot attempts and goals with Ghost on and off the ice. Here’s a chart of all Philadelphia Flyers defensemen at 3v3 this season.

Ghost has quite an effect on shot totals. There is a 24 total shot-per-60 minutes swing when he is on the ice compared to the aggregate team total (that number would be even bigger if you remove Ghost’s contributions from that team aggregate, which I cannot do at the moment).

Even crazier is his effect on goal scoring. Ghost is a perfect +4 during 3v3. Sure, it’s a small sample size with miniscule total minutes played. You can’t really get big sample minutes when 3v3 is a rare occurrence and overtime only lasts 5 minutes, but surely you get the picture.

There’s a lot of talk about Shayne Gostisbehere winning the Calder trophy this year. If he does, he would be the first Flyer ever to do so. When those votes are made, the voters might want to pay particular attention to this effect Ghost has had on the Flyers at 3v3, and these all important goals that directly translate to points in the standings.