from Michael Grange of Sportsnet,

What value do blocked shots actually provide?

Which is different than asking the value of having players willing to block shots. It’s a dangerous game and having more players on your roster prepared to take a hit to be first to a puck or fight their way to the front of the net to have a chance at tucking in rebounds likely translates into team success.

Blocking shots is a highly visible example of an overall ethic that likely correlates strongly with winning hockey, that’s hard to argue.

But it wasn’t long ago that having players willing to fight on your roster was an important element of building a winning culture. As recently as a couple of years ago, former Leafs coach Randy Carlyle explained to me that when someone like Colton Orr was willing to trade punches with John Scott, it was a handy example to use when demanding other players to make physical sacrifices in different ways. But we’ve seen that way of thinking proven wrong as teams across the league have embraced the value of having quality skaters throughout the bottom of their lineups.

Does actually blocking any given shot (outside of goal mouth scrambles and the like) really help the cause of winning? And is it worth the risk of injury to presumably hard-to-replace talent?

more, using the Brendan Gallagher shot block/broken fingers as an example...