Which stats are the most useful to you when evaluating Players?

[geisterhome]

I mean there are counting stats, we know them all. But goales and assists don't tell the whole story obviously. Which more advanced metrics do you rely on most? Or are you just going with ratings???

[Adam B]

Before diving too deeply, focus on Game Ratings. It's broken down to total and Offensive and Defensive. It gives you a good overview of what players are doing well or not well.

[Savoie45]

I typically look how many points and games played a player has each season. I look to see if he has been consistent and or improved. I then look at game ratings and then I make his attributes match up well with the tactics I'm currently using.

[ExeR]

Originally Posted by geisterhome

I mean there are counting stats, we know them all. But goales and assists don't tell the whole story obviously. Which more advanced metrics do you rely on most? Or are you just going with ratings???

Most important thing is managerial/coaching idea behind player usage, because stats will be different depending on what you choose. You can easily check this by selecting most isolated/controlable stats like hitting and checking out players with same attributes. Aggression, Bravery, Physicals won't explain differences, so that means some teams are happy to have hitting line (Vegas 2019 example) while others will try to minimize PIM from such activity.
Also line composition & tactics play a huge role and not just from personal preferences standpoint. There is a reason SJS split their best defenders (not just same position). If you make very good 1st line you will notice that even if it has godlike perfomance like +/- of 100, somebody will fall off in terms of GR/contribution. You're almost always better off adding weaker/def.minded defender into Draisaitl/McDavid/Strome/rushing defender line. Because even if you make last def "playmaking defenceman" with good attributes he won't contribute enough for high GR. Which is surprising since how can you not make plays for those guys? But other players will be so good at executing their actions that he won't get volume of actions/chances required to earn high GR. So it's better for you to make this line attacking 1+4 with last defender being more backchecking through individual instructions, than to make 5 all stars line that will have at least 1 guy wasting potential. Limited playing time also contributes to this logic, it's not like other sports where you play whole game or most of the game. 22-25 minutes out of 60 is probably max? So initial idea of player usage is very important and if you match lines sometimes you try to make line that won't succeed in +/- or shots difference. And even more obvious example is defensive players, that will spend time on PK lines, while attacking players will boost stats on PP lines. Here, 3rd line being negative was ok, because I used them as defensive+agro line. They weren't top priority players in PK killing, so I could use them as PIM earning players. 4th line weak offense was much more of a concern, since their defense was never priority, attacking line (that's why they're 4th, can't match strong opponent lines in two way game)

Last one is changing circumstances. Playoffs/regular season is quite different, so you gonna make some changes and stats will change too. Continuing example from that save, I switched 3rd and 2nd, because I needed to play stronger opponents every game, with stacked 1st/2nd lines (SJS, STL).

So perfomance&stats for those lines and players drastically changed. 4th continued underperforming but did it's job on PP and with help of strong defenders(core of team) kept 4th lines of opps from doing anything. 1st line had to perform great (to compensate for 4th) and they did, that's why I won championship. So all the lines had their story, PP/PK perfomance, line matching, adjusting lines to opponent, luck of under/over perfomance. So if you want to see through numbers either compile shortlists of similar players after the season or understand concepts I tried to explain. Even for shortlists you will need that, but you can go see their lines or tactics by using commish mode and taking over.
So in short, idea behind player usage+his performance+experience&knowing averages will help you. Plus lots of GR stuff stays hidden from available stats (even those in season stats screen). F.e. advanced stats of shots can be low for quality passive defenders and you won't see it anywhere, since they don't do takeaways/hits and there's no stats for opponent's giveaways etc. Those could've shown their impact, but right now you just have GR/game logs data/advanced stats showing opponent's inability to create shots. So I guess that's one example of importance w/o obvious reflection in regular stats but that can be "seen" in advanced ones.