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Graham Hughes

While the NHL doesn't release these numbers publicly, all 30 NHL teams track their man-games lost to injury during the season.

Here are their totals, sorted by man-games lost per game, as of their most recent game:



Rank

Team

GP

Pts

MGL

MGL/G

1

Pittsburgh

57

69

278

4.9

2

Montreal

58

56

279

4.8

3

NY Islanders

57

56

270

4.7

4

Buffalo

57

54

252

4.4

5

Columbus

57

40

252

4.4

6

Florida

56

65

244

4.4

7

Calgary

58

63

247

4.3

8

Winnipeg

59

60

238

4.0

9

St. Louis

57

77

229

4.0

10

Minnesota

57

59

219

3.8

11

Philadelphia

57

71

204

3.6

12

Edmonton

56

50

195

3.5

13

Vancouver

57

78

183

3.2

14

Toronto

58

64

183

3.2

15

New Jersey

56

68

176

3.1

16

Washington

56

61

175

3.1

17

NY Rangers

56

79

170

3.0

18

Colorado

58

60

174

3.0

19

Tampa Bay

57

56

168

2.9

20

Ottawa

60

68

165

2.8

21

Anaheim

57

57

156

2.7

22

Carolina

57

53

129

2.3

23

Dallas

57

61

120

2.1

24

Detroit

58

80

118

2.0

25

Los Angeles

58

65

112

1.9

26

Nashville

57

72

102

1.8

27

San Jose

55

69

97

1.8

28

Phoenix

58

65

93

1.6

29

Chicago

58

67

64

1.1

30

Boston

55

72

41

0.7

Not surprisingly, many of the teams with few injuries are near the top of the standings, with all of the seven least injured teams currently in playoff position.

Not that there aren't issues with these numbers. Man-games lost counts a game missed by Sidney Crosby as valued at the same as a game by a fourth line winger, and it also counts players like Andrei Markov and Rick DiPietro who are often out for long stretches of the season.

Still, there is a correlation coefficient of roughly -0.35 between points in the standings and man-games lost this season.

It's very difficult to win anything in the NHL while having 400 MGL, which is what Pittsburgh and Montreal are on pace for.

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