In November I wrote a couple of articles on whether teams with taller and heavier forwards or defensemen see more success in the playoffs. The conclusion was, over the past 5 or so years teams with bigger defensemen (taller and/or heavier) have gone deeper in the playoffs. Teams that have an average defenseman height 0.5″ taller than their opponent won 55.7% of playoff games while teams that had an average defensemen weight of 5lbs heavier than their opponent won 56.8% of the games. This advantage was not seen in the regular season so it is unique to playoff hockey and wouldn’t be reflected in each teams regular season won-loss record. The size of forwards didn’t seem to be connected with playoff success.
So, here is my look at the average defenseman height and weight for the 16 playoff teams. This is an ice time weighted average height and weight of defensemen since the trade deadline.
Average Defenseman Height
Average Defenseman Weight
Based on the above two tables, Colorado is at a big disadvantage as they have both the shortest and lightest group of defensemen. The New York Rangers and Florida Panthers are also relatively small ranking bottom 4 in both height and weight. Nashville is short but closer to average weight. Vegas and Tampa are the two heaviest teams and along with Edmonton are among the three tallest teams. Vancouver also ranks top 5 in both height and weight while Dallas has tall defensemen but more average weight.
To put this into perspective, here are the height and weights with rankings among the 16 playoff teams of the past 5 NHL Stanley Cup Champions and Stanley Cup Finalists.
There are 5 playoff series currently set.
Tampa defense is significantly taller (1.4″) and heavier (11.7lbs) than Florida’s so edge to the Lightning.
Boston’s defense is 0.2″ taller and 3.2lbs heavier than Toronto’s so not much of an edge here, especially with Joel Edmundson returning to the Leafs lineup.
The Capitals defense is 0.8″ taller and 5.9lbs heavier than the Rangers so there is an edge to Washington based on defenseman size, but is it enough to overcome the Rangers having the better team otherwise?
The Hurricane defense is just 0.3″ taller and 3lbs heavier than the New York Islanders so there is no real edge here either way.
The Winnipeg Jets who have a very average sized defense still have a sizeable edge over the Avalanche who’s defense is the smallest in the playoffs. Jet defensemen are 1.4″ taller and 7.5lbs heavier than the Avalanche defensemen.
To summarize, based on defensemen size, Tampa and Winnipeg have big advantages over Florida and Colorado respectively with Washington having a bit more modest but still sizeable advantage over the NY Rangers. The other two series are a wash in this regard.
I’ll update this tomorrow when the three remaining playoff series are finalized.
I look forward to seeing if the trend of bigger defensemen leading to more playoff success continues for these playoffs.