The Malhotra Effect (Part 1)

Watching the Habs dominate in the circle made me wonder about the impact that Manny Malhotra, one of the top faceoff specialists, had on the Canadiens this year. To further my curiosity, I heard Martin Lemay talking on TSN 690 about how Malhotra keeps detailed records on other team's centers and that he was been working with Lars Eller on improving Lars' faceoff technique.

I have compiled the data below that compares the faceoff winrate of the key centers on teams for the year before Malhotra with the year he arrived. I included all of the teams only after Malhotra had established himself as a dominant faceoff man. (All of the statistics were taken from NHL.com)

Montreal	Year Befor Malhotra (2013-2014)		Year with Malhotra (2014-2015)		Change
Player	FOs	Win %	FOs	Win %	Absolute	Change %
T. Plekanec	1712	48.00%	139	47.50%	-0.50%	-1%
D. Desharnais	1202	50.80%	138	57.20%	6.40%	13%
L. Eller	979	53.20%	96	56.20%	3.00%	6%
Carolina	Year Befor Malhotra (2012-2013)		Year with Malhotra (2013-2014)		Change
Player	FOs	Win %	FOs	Win %	Absolute	Change %
J. Staal	914	50.10%	1477	54.40%	4.30%	9%
E. Staal	1014	52.00%	1430	52.70%	0.70%	1%
R. Nash	289	44.30%	666	46.00%	1.70%	4%
Vancouver	Year Befor Malhotra (2010-2011)		Year with Malhotra (2010-2011)		Change
Player	FOs	Win %	FOs	Win %	Absolute	Change %
H. Sedin	1527	49.50%	1387	52.00%	2.50%	5%
R. Kesler	1401	55.10%	1496	57.40%	2.30%	4%
San Jose	Year Befor Malhotra (2009-2010)		Year with Malhotra (2010-2011)		Change
Player	FOs	Win %	FOs	Win %	Absolute	Change %
J. Thorton	1295	55.40%	1228	53.90%	-1.50%	-3%
J. Pavelski	1274	56.30%	821	58.10%	1.80%	3%
P. Marleau	591	52.40%	615	51.40%	-1.00%	-2%

Conclusion

Although the sample size for the Canadiens this year is too small to count, it does appear that both Carolina and Vancouver saw large net increases in winrate after Malhotra's arrival. The Sharks saw a net decrease. 

Although we cannot be sure as to the reason for the increases in winrate (is it due to lower quality of competition, due to learning from Malhotra, or variance) it does seem like there is a positive trend on faceoffs when Malhotra arrives at a new team.