On a team loaded with young defensemen, Hal Gill's willingness to do the dirty work helped position his teammates for success.

Hal Gill #75 / Defenseman / Nashville Predators Height: 6-7 Weight: 241 Born: Apr 06, 1975 1st Quarter Grade: B+ 1st Half Grade: B+

GP G A P +/- PIM PPG SHG GWG

SOG PCT 2012 - Hal Gill 32 0 0 0 -3 12 0 0 0 8 0.0

Fancy Stats

5-on-5 Usage EV TOI/Gm OZ % QoT QoC 10:46 42.7 -0.38 -1.35 Individual Team Metrics 5-5 Shots/60 5-5 Pts/60 Corsi On Corsi Rel 1.32 0.00 -8.08 -1.60 Power Play Penalty Kill PP TOI/Gm 5-4 GF On/60 5-4 Pts/60 PK TOI/Gm 4-5 GA On/60 0:00 0.00 0.00 2:36 5.75 Penalty Plus/Minus Favor of the Hockey Gods Taken Drawn On-Ice Sht% On-Ice Sv% PDO 0.6 0.0 6.90 932 1001

For details of the Fancy Stats, check the bottom of Gabby Bourque's review.

While certainly not superstar-caliber numbers, there are some interesting bits worth pointing out. First of all, as we'd suspect Gill's Goals Against rate on the 4-on-5 penalty kill (5.75) was indeed better than the team's overall value (8.3), a nice confirmation of the common perception that he's a valuable PK asset (you'd be surprised how often such notions don't pan out).

Another prevailing opinion of Gill is that he's too slow-footed for 5-on-5 play, but this season he actually fared decently for Nashville. While his basic Corsi numbers were pretty poor, they were in line with the team's performance overall, and that's before you consider his tendency to start his shifts in the defensive zone so often. He wasn't a game-breaker back there, but he wasn't a disaster, either. For a third-pair even strength defender, I'll take it.

My Grade: B

Outlook

Under contract for one more year at $2 million, Gill would seem to be secure in his role as the veteran presence on the left side, as Roman Josi continues to develop into a team leader on the top pair, and Victor Bartley attempts to lock down a regular position on the second. Gill's ability to effectively kill penalties may seem to be a relatively minor role, but by shouldering that workload the burden is lightened for his fellow sinisters. For an example there, look no further than the March 23 tilt against Columbus, Gill's return to the lineup after missing a month due to injury. In that one, the Predators faced a five-minute penalty kill while trying to defend a lead, and Gill was out there for more than four of those minutes, shutting down the BJ's power play at a critical point in the game.

2013 Highlight

While goals and other flashy plays aren't exactly part of Gill's repertoire, he's one of the more enjoyable characters around this team, and his Twitter account (@Skillsy75) is well worth a follow. The pro hockey writers here in town thus bestowed upon him the following honor...