Theo Peckham: Rock And A Hard Place

I'm beginning our look at 09-10 defenseman with a very important piece of the future: Theo Peckham. Unique among the young defensemen knocking at the NHL door, Peckham has the physical tools required to play at this level. There are concerns with regard to injury and conditioning, but the resume is a good one. Boxcars: 15gp, 0-1-1 Shots: 9 Plus Minus: -8 Corsi (Rel): -12.6 (5th among D, DNQ)GF/GA ON: 5-12 5x5/60: 0.28 (6th among F's, DNQ) 5x4/60: nil Quality of Competition: 5th toughest among D's Quality of Teammates: 7th best among D's Offensive Zone Start FO %: 38.9% (toughest among D's, DNQ) Cap Hit: $600,000 (RFA)What do these numbers tell us? Peckham was injured before training camp and then conditioning was a problem (such a problem the Oilers management actually mentioned it). You can see it too: in October 2009, Peckham went 4gp, 0-0-0 -5. In his 11 March games, he was 0-1-1 -3. The kid was playing bigger minutes in March too. How could these numbers be ...