Today I want to carry on with my summer sabermetrics series. I have been looking at Corsi and making adjustments in order to make it a more individualized statistic. I am taking player's Corsi ratings and adjusting them for the team in which they play and then adjusting them again for their zone starts. There is some controversy about how much a zone start is worth in term of Corsi points. I have charged players half a point for an offensive zone start and credited half a point for a defensive zone start. Since I have already team adjusted the numbers, I am also making an adjustment for team zone starts. This is the team zone start Corsi value divided by five to account for five players on the ice.

The group of players on this list are some of the best puck possession players in 2015/16. Puck possession is not the only part of hockey and it is possible to be a good player without being on this list, but it is clear that all players on this list had good seasons.

Here are the top 20 players in 2015/16 by team and zone adjusted Corsi:

1. Drew Doughty Los Angeles Kings +302.8

2. Patrice Bergeron Boston Bruins +291.6

3. Hampus Lindholm Anaheim Ducks +273.8

4. Brad Marchand Boston Bruins +248.1

5. John Klingberg Dallas Stars +233.3

6. Victor Hedman Tampa Bay Lightning +229.4

7. Tomas Hertl San Jose Sharks +222.4

8. Nino Niederreiter Minnesota Wild +213.7

9. Milan Lucic Los Angeles Kings +205.3

10. Mathieu Perreault Winnipeg Jets +202.5

11. Josh Manson Anaheim Ducks +193.3

12. Jake Muzzin Los Angeles Kings +186.3

13. Tyler Toffoli Los Angeles Kings +184.8

14. Blake Wheeler Winnipeg Jets +182.5

15. Dustin Byfulglien Winnipeg Jets +179.5

16. Brayden McNabb Los Angeles Kings +176.8

17. Radko Gudas Philadelphia Flyers +170.4

18. Joe Thornton San Jose Sharks +163.3

19. Anze Kopitar Los Angeles Kings +157.8

20. Colton Parayko St Louis Blues +157.7

Looking over this list we see some good hockey players. Drew Doughty won the Norris Trophy. He led in raw Corsi and remains number one after adjustments. Patrice Bergeron quickly rises to the top when team adjustments are taken into account. He should have been the Selke Trophy winner. Hampus Lindholm is and underrated talented Anaheim Duck defenceman. Brad Marchand is a regular Bergeron linemate who is a very good defensive forward in his own right. It is hard to differentiate between regular linemates with any adjustments. John Klingberg is a very good puck moving defenceman in Dallas.

Victor Hedman is a puck moving defenceman in Tampa Bay. Tomas Hertl is an emerging offensive player in San Jose. Nino Niederreiter is a solid two-way player in Minnesota. Milan Lucic is moving on to Edmonton. It will be interesting to see if he can keep up top puck possession numbers with weaker linemates. Mathieu Perreault has become a solid two-way player in Winnipeg.

Josh Manson is Hampus Lindholm's regular linemate. I suspect that helps his ranking. Jake Muzzin is Drew Doughty's most common linemate. Tyler Toffoli is a strong core player with Los Angeles . Blake Wheeler is a top scorer in Winnipeg. Dustin Byfuglien is another key Jet.

Brayden McNabb is a strong Los Angeles King. Radko Gudas is probably the biggest surprise here with a 14 point season in Philadelphia. I will write a post in the future explaining how he made this list. Joe Thornton was the top scorer in the regular season to pmake this list finishing 4th in the league in points. Anze kopitar won the Selke Trophy and Colton Parayko is a strong rookin in St Louis.

These players are aming the best in terms of puck possession in the NHL last year. There are other ways to try to adjust Corsi to get to a similar point. Generally they agree on which players excel. In the future I will show who is at the bottom of this list.

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