Nashville Predators Grades: Ryan Ellis Remains Elite Despite Injury

At long last, I get to be positive! Our Nashville Predators season grades roll on, and next up is none other than Ryan Ellis.

I have a little bit of a reputation among the Nashville Predators community for being a cynic. To be fair, this isn’t entirely undeserved; I almost always wait for players or miraculous events to regress to the mean, and work more with raw data than emotion.

You can thank years of watching the Philadelphia Flyers for that (WE STARTED CHRIS VANDEVELDE FOR A WHOLE SEASON). Many of my articles are also criticisms of the team and organization’s handling of various things like player and asset management, deployment and drafting.

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I can come off as too negative or critical sometimes, but trust me; I love this team and the players on it. I just love seeing good hockey played even more, and when they aren’t playing well, I’m gonna be brutally honest.

So, seeing as this was a bit of a weak year from the team, it’s been rare that I get to truly espouse how good some singular player’s contributions have been. I’m happy to say that Ryan Ellis has been arguably the best player on the team and a top-five defender in the NHL when healthy.

Just how good has Ellis been?

Well, in my opinion he’s been a top-ten defender for a year or two. This year? He was absolutely top-five. Let’s look at some numbers to prove that.

First, our basic counting stats, for all of you who are more old-fashioned. Ellis has posted 38 points in 49 games (8 goals, 30 assists). I’m not going to list plus-minus because that’s a garbage metric and y’all don’t deserve that.

Next, the fun stuff; GAR, WAR, and RAPM stats. Here are some of my thoughts on these statistics that I shared on social media.

Well, what does the eye test say if we disregard all those fancy numbers?

He’s still amazing. Ellis is the best all-around defender on the team, and that was undisputed this season. And he did it despite having his season disrupted by a controversial injury in the Winter Classic.

While Josi was still the better player thanks to his insane offensive prowess, Ellis was close behind and carried much of the shot suppression load.

It’s clear these two are the foundation of the team; if Ellis can sustain this kind of play, his already great contract will become one of the best in the NHL.

So as bad as the Predators defense was as a whole, at least they have a sturdy foundation to build around with both Ellis and Josi.

Check out Ellis’ goal in the big win over the Dallas Stars on March 7th, which was one game before the season was put on pause:

Just a really smart and witty shot by Ellis that found the back of the net. And that critical goal could be the difference-maker to the Predators getting a playoff spot if the regular season is never finished and the NHL starts in the playoffs.

Ellis had an incredible year like his partner, and that’s even with an awful injury from a dirty hit (thanks, Corey Perry). Hopefully when the NHL returns he’ll be just as good; I have no reason to believe he won’t be.