Minnesota Wild: Was Greg Pateryn a good summer acquisition?

The Minnesota Wild acquired Greg Pateryn in the summer, after he reached unrestricted free agency. They signed him to a three year deal worth $6.75 million. Was his signing a good one?

This year, Greg Pateryn has typically lined up on the Minnesota Wild third pairing, spending over 90% of his time partnering Nick Seeler. He averages just over 14 minutes a night in a line-up where the lion’s share of defensive minutes are eaten up by guys like Ryan Suter.

On his previous teams, Greg Pateryn hadn’t exactly been the top offensive producer, but he did manage to chip in points every once in a while. That side of his game hasn’t yet been evident for the Minnesota Wild, with Pateryn being one of very few players regularly in the line-up not to have a point to their name.

He along with regular partner, Nick Seeler have managed to carve out a niche as the biggest hitting defensemen in the line-up. In a team with so many scoring options on the blue-line, that is the sort of thing that differentiates them and ensures they keep getting plenty of third pairing minutes.

Only Matt Dumba comes close to their hitting averages which are above 5 for every 60 minutes played; he himself started hitting more when he lost his scoring touch briefly.

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Again when it comes to blocked shots, Greg Pateryn and Seeler dominate this statistic for the Minnesota Wild, each tallying over 7 blocked shots per 60 minutes.

This speaks to the opposition being able to gain zone time on Pateryn; not necessarily a good thing. However, the compete level in determining to block the shot rather than allow Devan Dubnyk or Alex Stalock in the Minnesota Wild net face it, speaks volumes.

Greg Pateryn is never about to be mistaken for a defenseman that can drive play, his Corsi For speaks to that with a low 44.3%. For comparison sake, Jonas Brodin and Jared Spurgeon both sit above 50%, among others.

Again though, looked subjectively at that statistic, you might think he’s not doing his job – the team is still winning regularly so he must be doing something right?

What hasn’t been said is that he faces a hefty amount of defensive zone starts, hence why he has elevated numbers on hits and blocked shots. It’d also go some way to explaining his Corsi score too.

It’s safe to say that given how comfortable he looks out there partnered with Nick Seeler that regardless of whether the statistics paint the true picture, the ‘eye test’ suggests that his summer signing was a very smart move.

The only negative is how much he’s being paid on the third pairing and even then, it’s only an issue courtesy of the other bigger deals eating into the Minnesota Wild’s cap space.

Statistics courtesy of Dobber Sports.