The 2008-09 NHL regular season is in the books, so we can accurately gauge which players had the best individual seasons. I created an objective statistical ranking system called the ?Floor Impact Counter? for basketball, for baseball and football it is renamed the ?Field Impact Counter?, and for ice hockey it is called the ?Ice Impact Counter? or the IIC. There is never a be-all and end-all in any ranking system (particularly in a sport like hockey where intangibles are exceedingly important), but I believe my formula is equally fair to forwards, defensemen, and goaltenders. Ranking players by the IIC, I then am able to determine a Reina Value, which is a valuation system that quickly determines how players are performing in relation to their contracts throughout the season. With the NHL now using a salary cap, general managers must work within the confines of a strict budget, and big market teams cannot afford to write off big-contract mistakes like they once did. Evgeni Malkin, Alexander Ovechkin and Pavel Datsyuk are the three Hart Trophy finalists. Of the three, Datsyuk was ranked the highest in the second slot behind Ovechkin's teammate Mike Green. Malkin was ranked seventh and Ovechkin was modestly and regrettably ranked 68th. The Hart Trophy will be awarded on June 18th. * Season IIC, IIC per game, Reina Value 1. Mike Green, WAS: 195, 2.86, 82% Green really had an incredible season as the best offensive blue liner in the game, scoring 31 goals and assisting on another 42. His +24 was three times better than Ovechkin's and he even had four game-winners, while scoring at a shot percentage of 12.8%. 2. Pavel Datsyuk, DET: 169, 2.08, 30% 3. Nicklas Lidstrom, DET: 167, 2.14, 5% 4. Henrik Sedin, VAN: 161, 1.96, 110% 5. David Krejci, BOS: 159, 1.94, 749% Krejci had 73 points, four of them short-handed and six of them game-winners, all to go with a +37, which was best in the NHL. Krejci was also the NHL's best value, with a +749% Reina Value. 6. Brian Rafalski, DET: 158, 2.03, 24% 7. Evgeni Malkin, PIT: 158, 1.93, 94% Malkin led the NHL with 113 points, beating out Ovechkin by three and teammate Sidney Crosby by 10. 8. Tim Thomas, BOS: 157, 2.91, 569% Thomas led the NHL in save percentage (.933) and goal against average with 2.10. 9. Niklas Backstrom MIN 157 2.21 747% 10. Joe Thornton, SJ: 148, 1.81, -1% Thornton had a shot percentage of .180, well above his career mark of .149. 11. Andrei Markov, MON: 147, 1.88, 24% 12. Sidney Crosby, PIT: 143, 1.86, -19% Crosby had a relatively healthy 2008-09, but was only +3 for the season and scored just three game-winners. 13. Tomas Vokoun, FLA: 142, 2.40, 27% 14. Dennis Wideman, BOS: 141, 1.78, 81% 15. Marc Savard, BOS: 139, 1.70, 38% 16. Zach Parise, NJD: 139, 1.69, 120% 17. Nicklas Backstrom, WAS: 133, 1.62, 694% 18. Mark Streit, NYI: 133, 1.80, 65% 19. Alexander Semin, WAS: 132, 2.13, 47% 20. Brian Campbell, CHI: 131, 1.60, -6% 21. Henrik Lundqvist, NYR: 131, 1.87, -3% 22. Cam Ward, CAR: 128, 1.88, 150% 23. Martin Havlat, CHI: 127, 1.57, 8% Havlat's shot percentage droped to 11.6%, but he had career bests in points (77) and +/- (29). 24. Mike Richards, PHI: 125, 1.58, 13% Seven of Richards' 30 goals were of the short-handed variety. 25. Ryan Miller, BUF: 124, 2.10, 144% 26. Patrick Marleau, SJ: 123, 1.61, 3% 27. Jeff Carter, PHI: 122, 1.49, 28% 28. Dan Boyle, SJ: 122, 1.58, -5% Boyle was sixth in points amongst defensemen, largely a result of simply staying healthy and on the ice on a much better San Jose team than he played beside in Tampa Bay. 29. Daniel Sedin, VAN: 121, 1.48, 77% 30. Roberto Luongo, VAN: 119, 2.20, -7% 31. Rick Nash, COB: 118, 1.52, 16% 32. Simon Gagne, PHI: 118, 1.49, 19% 33. Patrik Elias, NJD: 117, 1.53, 3% 34. Dwayne Roloson, EDM: 116, 1.84, 64% 35. Loui Eriksson, DAL: 116, 1.41, 275% 36. Steve Mason, COB: 115, 1.89, 606% Mason led the NHL with nine shutouts and was second in goals against average with 2.29 and was clearly one of the best rookies at any position and should win the Calder Trophy. 37. Scott Niedermayer, ANA: 114, 1.39, -11% 38. Jamie Langenbrunner, NJD: 113, 1.40, 114% 39. Marc-Andre Fleury, PIT: 113, 1.82, 20% 40. Niklas Kronwall, DET: 112, 1.39, 94% 41. Denis Grebeshkov, EDM: 111, 1.54, 283% 42. Ilya Kovalchuk, ATL: 110, 1.39, -10% 43. Duncan Keith, CHI: 109, 1.41, 256% 44. Jonathan Toews, CHI: 109, 1.33, 101% 45. Travis Zajac, NJD: 109, 1.33, 472% 46. Tom Gilbert, EDM: 108, 1.32, 40% 47. Zdeno Chara, BOS: 108, 1.35, -27% Chara once again was an efficient scorer and was one point shy of matching his career high set in 07-08. 48. Evgeni Nabokov, SJ: 107, 1.73, 2% 49. Martin Biron, PHI: 106, 1.93, 54% 50. Martin St. Louis, TAM: 105, 1.28, 3% 51. Daniel Alfredsson, OTT: 105, 1.33, 24% 52. Jarome Iginla, CGY: 104, 1.27, -24% 53. Miikka Kiprusoff, CGY: 104, 1.37, -9% 54. Kimmo Timonen, PHI: 104, 1.35, -16% 55. Stephen Weiss, FLA: 104, 1.33, 110% 56. Chris Mason, STL: 103, 1.81, 75% 57. Phil Kessel, BOS: 102, 1.46, 139% 58. Mike Ribeiro, DAL: 102, 1.25, 5% Ribeiro had an unreal shot percentage of 25.2% in 07-08, that climbed down to a more modest 13.5%, but he still ended up with 78 points, the second best mark of his career. 59. Ryan Getzlaf, ANA: 102, 1.26, -1% 60. Pekka Rinne, NAS: 102, 1.96, 851% 61. Anton Babchuk, CAR: 99, 1.38, 406% 62. Michael Cammalleri, CGY: 99, 1.22, 49% 63. Shea Weber, NAS: 98, 1.21, 11% 64. Marian Hossa, DET: 98, 1.32, -33% Hossa's gamble may still end up in a Stanley Cup, individually he wasn't the 100 point man he was in 06-07 with Atlanta, but he still had 71 and a career best +27. 65. Michael Ryder, BOS: 97, 1.32, 25% 66. Ray Whitney, CAR: 97, 1.18, 25% 67. Jaroslav Spacek, BUF: 97, 1.21, 50% 68. Alexander Ovechkin WAS 94 1.19 -48% How is the NHL's top goal scorer who finished second in points ranked 68th, especially since 10 of his goals were game-winners? The 'objectiveness' of the statistic clearly is flawed in this situation, but here are a few reasons: a. His +/- was a very human +8 for the season. b. His shot percentage dipped to .106 from .146 last season. c. Exactly half of his assists came on the power play. 69. Slava Kozlov, ATL: 93, 1.13, 36% 70. Todd White, ATL: 93, 1.13, 105% 71. Ilya Bryzgalov, PHO: 92, 1.41, 15% 72. Blake Wheeler, BOS: 91, 1.12, 71% 73. Derek Roy, BUF: 91, 1.10, 19% 74. Dave Bolland, CHI: 90, 1.12, 462% 75. Craig Conroy, CGY: 90, 1.09, 352% 76. Marc-Edouard Vlasic, SJ: 88, 1.08, 318% 77. Nikolai Khabibulin, CHI: 88, 2.10, -33% 78. Kris Versteeg, CHI: 87, 1.12, 818% Versteeg trailed only Bobby Ryan in points amongst rookies. 79. Sheldon Souray, EDM: 87, 1.07, -17% 80. Ales Hemsky, EDM: 87, 1.21, 10% 81. J.P. Dumont, NAS: 87, 1.06, 13% 82. Jiri Hudler, DET: 87, 1.06, 343% 83. Johan Franzen, DET: 87, 1.22, 378% 84. Bobby Ryan, ANA: 86, 1.35, 429% 85. Shane Doan, PHO: 86, 1.05, -1% 86. Jonas Hiller, ANA: 85, 1.84, 246% Clearly an impressive regular season, but his .919 save percentage can't compare to the .943 he posted against high-octane San Jose and Detroit. 87. Paul Martin, NJD: 85, 1.16, 17% 88. Devin Setoguchi, SJ: 85, 1.04, 261% 89. Filip Kuba, OTT: 84, 1.19, 50% 90. Brad Boyes, STL: 84, 1.02, 13% Boyes scored the game-winner in 11 of his 33 goals. 91. Tim Connolly, BUF: 83, 1.73, 50% 92. Johnny Oduya, NJD: 83, 1.01, 622% 93. Matt Hunwick, BOS: 82, 1.55, 459% 94. Milan Michalek, SJ: 82, 1.06, -1% 95. Alexei Ponikarovsky, TOR: 81, 0.99, 102% Ponikarovsky is the only Maple Leaf in our top-100, as the left winger had a career high of 61 points and three game-winning goals. 96. Bryan McCabe, FLA: 80, 1.16, -31% 97. Henrik Zetterberg, DET: 79, 1.03, 60% 98. Mark Recchi, BOS: 79, 0.99, 183% 99. Tobias Enstrom, ATL: 79, 0.96, 367% 100. Kari Lehtonen, ATL: 78, 1.71, 40%