The Leafs and the new HERO chart update

Friend of the site and co-emperor of the “Best Dom” throne Dominic Galamini released an update to his famous “HERO” Chart system. Powered by Tableau, HERO Charts exist to give you a quick look at a player’s general capabilities at 5-on-5, a reference point to play with before you dive into greater detail.

In recent years, we’ve seen them used by the general for instant comparison graphics. It may not be the perfect system, but they’re the easiest semi-comprehensive visualisations of a player’s skillset to make and share with the hockey world.

Galamini’s latest update gave his system a near-total overhaul. He breaks things down into five sections (time on ice, goals, primary assists, shot generation, and shot suppression), finds a mean average, and delivers an out-of-10 system, percentile-based output to put into graph form. It kind of reminds me of EA Sports’ NHL video game ratings, except it seems to give most depth players too much credit and there doesn’t seem to be much variance in the rati… okay, it’s almost the exact same as the game.

Anyway, since I’m a night owl, I attempted to answer some of the most obvious questions. Like…

Which team has the more generational of the talents?

Who gets to be the second best of the kids?

How great was this contract?

And how much should we be worried about this one?

Which one of these two is Toronto’s top defenceman right now?

Or should we even care?

Should the Leafs have freed Frankie?

Or perhaps freed Dickey?

Or at least have put Ben in jail?

Would the Leafs be well off to take a chance on an old, bearded man?

And how much should they be avoiding the noted shutdown man?

Obviously, we don’t get any definitive answers from any of these; often there are wide varieties of factors at play when comparing players in this type of fashion that require more context. But it definitely makes for some fun first glances.

If you’d like to play with the new tool yourself, you can find it here. Galamini will be releasing an FAQ to answer any small questions you may have soon.