2013 HOCKEY ARBITRATION COMPETITION OF CANADA Carl Gunnarsson v. Toronto Maple Leafs Submission on Behalf of Carl Gunnarsson Midpoint: $3.15 million Submission by Team 17 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................3 II. PROFILE OF CARL GUNNARSSON………………………………..............................................................................3 III. COMPARABLE PLAYERS ....................................................................................................7 A. Kyle Quincey..............................................................................................................................7 B. Erik Johnson................................................................................................................................7 C. Zach Bogosian.............................................................................................................................7 IV. CONCLUSION .........................................................................................................................9 2 I. INTRODUCTION Carl Gunnarsson is a 26 year old Swedish professional ice hockey player who currently plays for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Prior to joining the Maple Leafs, Gunnarsson played junior hockey in his native Sweden for Arboga IFK and VIK Vasteras HK in the HockeyAllsvenkan league. He later played for Linkopings HC in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). During this period, the Toronto Maple Leafs selected Gunnarsson 194th overall in the seventh round of the 2007 National Hockey League entry draft. In the 2009-10 season, Gunnarsson played for the AHL’s Toronto Marlies for 12 games while also playing for the big club for 43 games. His first full season with the Maple Leafs was the 2010-11 campaign1. The Toronto Maple Leafs list Gunnarsson at a height of 6’2” and a weight of 196 pounds2. II. PROFILE OF CARL GUNNARSSON Table 1: Career Statistics for Carl Gunnarsson3 A. Early Career At the age of 19, Gunnarsson first played semi-professional hockey in Sweden in the HockeyAllsvenkan league for Arboga IFK and VIK Vasterask HK. After a brief time in the Allsvenkan – Sweden’s second most-watched league – Gunnarsson made the jump to the pinnacle of Swedish professional hockey in the Swedish Hockey League. Here he played for Linkopings HC for parts of four years. In 2005-06, Gunnarsson played twelve games for Linkopings while splitting time with Arboga IFK. In 2006-07, he played thirty games for 1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Gunnarsson 2 http://mapleleafs.nhl.com/club/player.htm?id=8474125 3 http://www.nhl.com/ice/player.htm?id=8474125&view=splits#&navid=nhl-keymatch 3 Linkopings while splitting time with VIK Vasterask HK. 2007-08 represented Gunnarsson’s first full season with Linkopings, playing 53 games with the club and 16 more during their extended playoff run. During that year, Gunnarsson had two goals and seven assists for the club during the regular season, with four more points in the playoffs. Linkopings lost in the finals that year to HV 71, with Gunnarsson playing substantial minutes throughout the playoffs4. In Gunnarsson’s final season with Linkopings – the 2008-09 campaign – he played 53 games and racked up six goals and ten assists5. The team again went to the playoffs that year, this time bowing out in the quarter finals6. B. International Experience Gunnarsson has played in four international tournaments over the course of his career. In 2004, he played for the Swedish U-18 team at the World U18 Championships in six games. Further, from 2009-2011 Gunnarsson played in the IIHF World Championships for Sweden. In 2009, Gunnarsson played six games for Sweden and scored two goals. In 2010, Gunnarsson played nine games, scoring one goal and with one assist with Sweden coming in third place overall. In 2011, Gunnarsson played another nine games and logged two assists with Sweden losing to Finland in the finals7. C. Career in the NHL In 2009, the Toronto Maple Leafs selected Gunnarsson in the seventh round with the 194th pick overall. Gunnarsson started the 2009-10 campaign in the AHL with the Toronto Marlies before being called up to the NHL only twelve games in. For the remaining forty-three games of the season, Gunnarsson had three goals and twelve assists. He was a +8 during the 2009-10 season. He also had a time on ice of 21:06 per game, a fairly high number for an NHL 4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linkopings_HC 5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Gunnarsson 6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linkopings_HC 7 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Gunnarsson 4 rookie with an impressive time on ice on the power play of 1:51 per game. He also had 46 hits and 77 blocked shots that year8. During this year, Gunnarsson had a takeaways per game number of .186. In his rookie year, Gunnarsson also had a Corsi Quality of Competition figure (Corsi QoC) of -.196 (a relatively weak level of opponents)9. In 2010-11, Gunnarsson played in 68 games for the Maple Leafs, racking up four goals and sixteen assists. He finished the season at a -2 with a time on ice per game of 18:15 and a time on ice on the power play per game of 1:21. He also had 63 hits and an impressive 120 blocked shots. During his second year in the NHL Gunnarsson emerged as a steady defenceman with a good outlet pass and who skated well, while being counted on consistently by then-Leafs coach Ron Wilson. Gunnarsson also improved his takeaways per game stat raising it to .353 this year10. The coaching staff’s increased confidence in Gunnarsson can be shown in the .477 Corsi QoC rating he had this year – a significant jump in the type of quality minutes against tough competition he played over the course of the year11. In the 2011-12 campaign, Gunnarsson played 76 games for the Blue and White, scoring four goals with 15 assists. With a -9 plus-minus rating on a dreadful Leafs team, Gunnarsson logged more minutes than the year prior, with a time on ice of 21:42 per game. He also had 115 hits and 152 blocked shots, showing his willingness to mix it up with physical play while also get in front of shots coming in from the points. Gunnarsson also had a time on ice on the power play of 1:13 per game12. In 2011-12, Gunnarsson continued to have a strong takeaways per game line of .353. Gunnarsson’s on-ice responsibilities continued to grow this year, something shown by 8 http://www.rotowire.com/hockey/player.htm?id=3247 9 http://www.behindthenet.ca/ 10 http://www.rotowire.com/hockey/player.htm?id=3247 11 http://www.behindthenet.ca/ 12 http://www.rotowire.com/hockey/player.htm?id=3247 5 the fact that his increasing Corsi QoC was a 1.154 (or the twentieth highest in the NHL among defencemen with 30+ games played)13. D. Platform Year In Gunnarsson’s platform year, the 2012-13 campaign, he played 37 games for the Maple Leafs as a result of the shortened lockout season and missing 11 games due to a hip injury. Despite this, Gunnarsson had one goal and 14 assists and a plus-minus rating of +5. Gunnarsson continued to log major minutes for the Leafs as a top-four defenceman with a time on ice per game of 21:17. While his power play role declined (with :54 minutes per game on the power play), Gunnarsson’s defensive role continued to increase under Randy Carlyle. Over the course of this short season, Gunnarsson had 78 hits and 71 blocked shots. Extrapolating both hits and blocked shots over the course of a full season show that they would result in career highs14. In Gunnarsson’s platform year, his Corsi QoC was 2.221 an extremely high number showing that he played very tough minutes over the course of the season for Carlyle’s Leafs (something made very impressive by his +5 rating). Importantly, this number represented the fourth highest Corsi Quality of Competition number among defencemen with 30+ games played. In the Leafs 2012- 13 playoff series against the Boston Bruins, Gunnarsson played all seven games against a Corsi QoC of 2.996 playing 18:01 minutes per game15. E. Injuries Throughout his NHL career, Gunnarsson has only had one injury which resulted in him missing relatively extensive time. In the 2012-13 season, he had a hip injury which forced him to miss 11 games – and then returned to play in the remaining 37 games of the 48 game season16. 13 http://www.behindthenet.ca/ 14 http://www.rotowire.com/hockey/player.htm?id=3247 15 http://www.behindthenet.ca/ 16 http://www.rotoworld.com/recent/nhl/3112/carl-gunnarsson 6 III. COMPARABLE PLAYERS A. Analysis Table 2: Recent Player Statistics for Kyle Quincey17 Table 3: Recent Player Statistics for Erik Johnson18 Table 4: Recent Player Statistics for Zach Bogosian19 Our analysis has identified three comparable players to Mr. Gunnarsson in terms of contractual status and statistical output: Kyle Quincey, Erik Johnson, and Zach Bogosian. While Bogosian at age 23 is younger than the other two players, Johnson is age 25 and Quincey is age 28. Carl Gunnarsson compares favourably in terms of points with all three of these other players in their platform years, and is a similar age to Mr. Johnson while younger than Mr. Quincey by two years. Carl Gunnarsson had fifteen points in 2012-13. In comparison, while Bogosian had a comparable fourteen points, Kyle Quincey only had three and Erik Johnson only had four. Similarly, in terms of blocked shots and hits, Gunnarsson compares favourably to all three players. Gunnarsson had 78 hits and 71 blocked shots over the course of the season – compared 17 http://www.nhl.com/ice/player.htm?id=8470724&view=splits#&navid=nhl-keymatch 18 http://www.nhl.com/ice/player.htm?id=8473446&view=splits#&navid=nhl-keymatch 19 http://www.nhl.com/ice/player.htm?id=8474567&view=splits#&navid=nhl-keymatch 7 to Quincey’s 29 hits and 46 blocked shots and Johnson’s 44 hits and 58 blocked shots.