Henrik Sedin: NHL's Most Efficient Shooter This Season

Vancouver's Henrik Sedin on his way to the best season of his career. He's been at the top of the scoring race for most of the season (he was leading the league until he was passed by Alex Ovechkin late in the week) and has already set a new career-high for goals scored. With four more points he'll match his previous career-best of 82, and it's not even March yet.

He's also been the NHL's most efficient shooter this season, having scored on a higher percentage of his attempted shots than any other player in the league.

Who else is near the top of the list? Some surprising names.

Through Thursday's game, Sedin has a shooting percentage of 21 percent, but that only takes into account shots that were actually on net. Obviously, not all shots that are attempted end up hitting their target. When you factor in all attempted shots -- those on net and those that miss -- Sedin has the best mark when it comes to scoring.

Here are the top-10 players among forwards in the league (this does not include Friday's games, and only includes players that have attempted a minimum of 100 shots, simply to eliminate any small sample sizes):

Most Efficient Shooters: Forwards
Player	Attempted Shots	Shots On Goal	On-Net Percentage	Goals	Goals/Attempted Shots
Henrik Sedin	145	118	.814	25	.172
Mike Knuble	125	95	.760	20	.160
Teemu Selanne	115	92	.800	17	.148
Troy Brouwer	118	86	.729	17	.144
Martin Erat	127	100	.787	18	.142
Patrick Marleau	277	202	.729	38	.137
Raffi Torres	121	93	.769	16	.132
Tomas Fleischmann	129	84	.651	17	.132
Sidney Crosby	284	211	.743	37	.130
Alex Burrows	200	153	.765	25	.125

-- The players that round out the bottom five are Scott Nichol (.029), Chad LaRose (.028), Max Pacioretty (.027), Justin Abdelkader (.026) and Shawn Thornton (.009).

-- Any guess as to which player gets the highest-percentage of his attempted shots on net? None other than Washington's Jason Chimera (seriously?), who checks at .830. The worst: Cory Stillman at .606.

-- At first glance, Mike Knuble's name was somewhat of a surprise at No. 2, but when you consider the type of game he plays and the fact he's usually around the net in a high-percentage scoring area, well, it makes sense. The Capitals, as a team, are ridiculously accurate with seven players in the top-60 (out of 240 forwards): Knuble (2nd), Fleischmann (8th), Nicklas Backstrom (25th), Eric Fehr (35th), Alex Ovechkin (45th), Brendan Morrison (52nd) and Alexander Semin (60th).

-- Colorado's Matt Duchene leads all rookies with a .119 mark, good enough for 21st in the league.

Now, as for the defensemen (minimum 75 shot attempts)...

Most Efficient Shooters: Defensemen
Player	Attempted Shots	Shots On Goal	On-Net Percentage	Goals	Goals/Attempted Shots
Lubomir Visnovsky	112	71	.634	9	.080
Ed Jovanovski	114	83	.728	9	.079
Jordan Leopold	89	63	.708	7	.079
Chris Phillips	84	59	.702	6	.071
Mark Giordano	112	74	.661	8	.071
Drew Doughty	154	100	.649	11	.071
Keith Yandle	150	90	.600	10	.067
Marc-Andre Bergeron	153	97	.634	10	.065
Alex Goligoski	93	63	.677	6	.065
Michael Del Zotto	93	59	.634	6	.065

-- The bottom five: Robyn Regehr (.010), Kevin Bieksa (.009), Dennis Seidenberg (.007), Mattias Ohlund (.000), and Andrew Ference (.000).

-- The defenseman that gets the highest percentage of his shots on net: Chris Pronger, with an impressive .814. Matt Carkner is the only other rearguard over .800. The worst: Shane Hnidy (.568)

-- It's incredible to see how many young defensemen are at the top of this chart. As you can see, Doughty, Yandle, Goligoski and Del Zotto crack the top 10, while Marc Staal (11th), Tyler Myers (12th), Kris Russel (15th) and Zach Bogosian (20th) are all in the top 20. Seven are age 23 or younger, while Goligoski is 24.

We'll update after the regular season to see how the rankings look.