What is James Wisniewski worth, or he is worthless to the Ducks?

James Wisniewski is bit of a curious case. Last year he and the Ducks almost went to the arbitration, to determine what kind of money he should be getting. GM Bob Murray and the rugged defenceman Wisniewski did however, came to an agreement on the terms before the hearing, so Wisniewski was given a 1-year deal, which paid him $2.75 million this season. Murray only gave him a 1-year deal, because he wanted to see what 'Wis' could do, when playing for the Ducks the whole season. So, what did James Wisniewski accomplish this past season?

Well, first thing you've got to keep in mind, is that he only missed 3 games because of an injury, and that certainly is a positive sign, since injuries were one of the reasons Bob Murray wanted to give him only a 1-year deal, so that he could see Wisniewski isn't an injury-prone player. The negative sign is, however, that he proved to be bit of a suspension-prone player. He was handed 2 suspensions in the 2009-2010 season, 2 games for elbowing Phoenix Coyotes captain, Shane Doan. Second was a retaliation to Brent Seabrook, who suffered a minor concussion from the hit to the head. Incident cost Wisniewski 8 games. That could certainly have some effect on the next contract negotiations, that Wisniewski is going to have to deal with.

On ice, we saw a physical offensive defenceman, who wasn't afraid to throw a big hit if the opportunity presented itself. That did, however, took a toll out of his defensive positioning, because he sometimes got caught going for the big hit, and he wasn't able to recover, despite being a pretty decent skater. Also, the problem with Wisniewski is that even when he is able to play physical, he simply isn't tall enough to clear the crease when 6'2"+ forwards come spending time to the crease looking for rebounds. Wisniewski is quite versatile defenceman, he can log 20 minutes regularly and he also can play PP & PK. Unfortunately, when playing top defenceman minutes like he did this past season (24:20 TOI/G), it can wear him out a bit, which makes him an occasional defensive hazard. In my opinion, he was given way more responsibility than he should have had, because of the Ducks poor defence and the numbers relfects that a little bit.

Here is some primary stats which should be taken account when calculating what Wisniewski might be worth:

69GP

3G (G/G .04)

27A (A/G .39)

30P (P/G .43)

-5 +/- (GFON/60 2.32, GAON/60 2.72, +-ON/60 -0.40)

56PIM (18 Minor Penalties, 4 Major Penalties)

146Shots (S% 2.1, 62MsS)

129Hits, 102BkS, 49GvA, 27TkA

TOI/G 24:20 (ES TOI/G 18:19, SH TOI/G 3:28, PP TOI/G 2:32, TOI Total 1,679:56)

That's pretty basic stuff (I'm not so good with stats), but shifting through those, it's becoming obvious that his time on ice is much higher than a defenceman Wisniewski's caliber should be logging. He did excel at some stats, including most hits by a defenceman and most blocked shots by defenceman in the Ducks defence corps. As you can see, he likes to shoot a lot, but he also misses shots more than any other Ducks defenceman. He does register his fair share of minor penalties (.26/G), but that's far from being an huge issue on his game. His offensive numbers are pretty good, but those also might be inflated by his large TOI/G.

Anyhow, in conclusion it's pretty hard to gauge how much money he is exactly worth. In my mind, anything more than 3.2 million would start to sound like an overpayment. Wisniewski and his agent, though, would more than likely beg to differ, and it remains to been seen whether or not Murray is comfortable giving him that type of money. My guess, is that he is not, and so it wouldn't surprise me the least to see Wisniewski shipped out before July 1st. Ducks do intend to qualify him, but that necessarily doesn't mean that he is a lock to wear the Ducks swater next season.