Brian Campbell has played 766 minutes and 53 seconds this season, the most among all NHL skaters.
And because he’s played those minutes for the Florida Panthers, his plus-minus rating has taken a beating.
Literally.
Heading into Monday night’s action, Campbell ranks dead last among the league’s 765 skaters with a minus-20 rating, a startling number from a guy that’s plus-24 for his career (and went +51 over three years with Chicago.)
Of course, plus-minus has always been a contentious metric. It’s a team dependent statistic, so players on bad teams are going to have bad ratings, suggesting the plus-minus number isn’t truly indicative of an individual’s performance.
That’s part of the reason why Panthers GM Dale Tallon isn’t concerned about it.
“He plays 30 minutes a game on a team that has a hard time keeping the puck out of the net,’' Tallon told the Florida Sun-Sentinel. “I’m not worried about Brian Campbell.’'
To wit, Campbell’s not alone in the NHL’s basement for plus-minus.
Panthers teammate Erik Gudbranson has the league’s second-worst mark (minus-17) and forward Tomas Fleischmann has the third-worst (minus-14).
Other Florida skaters in the bottom-15 include Stephen Weiss (-13) and Filip Kuba (-11).
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