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Versatility and the Promise of Position-less Hockey |
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Positional versatility has been the topic du jour at the IIHF World Hockey Championship as the Canadians brought home silver with Dylan Cozens scoring 13 points on the wing, and Pierre-Luc Dubois acting as his center. That, naturally, has led to Winnipeg Jets fans plotting a plan to bring Dylan Cozens back to the Great White North and closer to his home in the Yukon, while Sabres fans have already submitted their trade proposal of the 9th overall pick and Casey Mittelstadt in exchange for Dubois.
Neither of these things are likely to happen.
It’s impossible to see Kevyn Adams trading Dylan Cozens after all of the good vibes amassed this season. If there’s one lasting image from this year, it’s that of Dylan Cozens – at the end of the Heritage Classic - raising his hands in celebration as his teammates finished off the Maple Leafs in the outdoor game in Hamilton, Ontario. No chance he gets dealt. As for the Jets dealing Dubois, they’d be crazy to do so, even if he holds the leverage over Winnipeg with only two seasons left before reaching free agency.
I digress.
Elsewhere in the tournament, the Americans were down to only four natural defensemen late in the tournament, and as a result they opted to play some forwards at defense during their contest against Finland on Friday.
According to the USA hockey website: “Forward Sam Lafferty, who played defense growing up, got a handful of shifts on the blueline against the Swiss and it’s likely he’ll play a lot more on defense today. Team USA also utilized forward Riley Barber on the blueline in its final preliminary round game against Norway.”
Now, some (read: most) of that decision process comes down purely to the availability of bodies to occupy enough roster spots. If they had access to more defensemen, team USA undoubtedly would have played those guys, even if they were perhaps not as good of hockey players overall. The conventional wisdom holds that, in hockey, you’re better off playing an AHL or even ECHL defenseman at defense over an NHL forward because the nuances of the position are such that it’s almost impossible for an NHL forward to be as competent as a lesser-skilled AHL player.
It's a philosophy and question that has interested me for over 15 years. Back in 2006, when the Sabres squared off against the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final without the services of Teppo Numminen, Henrik Tallinder, Toni Lydman and Jay McKee due to injury and other medical issues, there were rumors (and lord knows they may not have been true) that the Sabres were considering playing Jason Pominville at defense rather than relying on someone from the AHL like Doug Janik or Jeff Jillson. They opted not to do that and instead relied on the aforementioned duo, along with Brian Campbell, Dmitri Kalinin, rookie Nathan Paetsch and bit-player Rory Fitzpatrick. In a funny coincidence, later on in his career, Paetsch would end up playing some forward for head coach Lindy Ruff who also split time between defense and forward for the Buffalo Sabres.
It’s interesting to wonder if Pominville or Jochen Hecht – an underrated defensive player in his own right – would have made any difference on defense. It’s academic at this point, but ever since then, it’s been a question floating around somewhere in the back of my head. In the intervening time since that series and today, not much progress has been made on positional versatility in the league. Sure, there are some notable guys like Brent Burns and Dustin Byfuglien who made the transition from wing to defense, but very few players actively swap between the two positions. The NHL is still locked into the notion that an NHL team is to play with three forwards and two defensemen.
There are some exceptions to that philosophy. It’s widely accepted that teams will play four or even five forwards on their powerplay units depending on the personnel available. Florida went with five forwards on their top powerplay occasionally following an injury to Aaron Ekblad this season. Regular readers of this blog probably know of my affinity for Mark Pysyk, who, despite being a depth defenseman, has also dabbled in the world of being a hat-trick scoring forward back when he played for Joel Quenneville and the Florida Panthers.
“He took a spot up front where he got more ice time and opportunity,” Then-coach Quenneville told floridahockeynow.com. “He really looked like he was understanding the position as the season grew. His offense was enhanced as he progressed. He has some quickness to his game and anticipates what a forward is thinking but with the mindset of a defenseman.”
Quenneville seemingly thought it was more important to get a specific player into games, regardless of his position, than it was to get a player into the line up because of his specific position. And that is where the future of the game may be heading.
Why is it, for instance, that teams are willing to play four or five forwards on the power play in order to score a goal, but they are unwilling to do so at even strength when down 3-1 in the third period with 8 minutes to play? The obvious answer is that coaches are conservative by nature, and they are worried about being scored on more than they’re willing to try to score a goal. Still, with 8 minutes to play in this hypothetical situation, the Sabres could opt to deploy someone like Peyton Krebs alongside Rasmus Dahlin on the blue line rather than continue to pair Dahlin with Mattias Samuelsson who is unlikely to contribute offensively. Sure, there is risk. There also exists the possibility that deploying an excellent passer like Krebs from the back end would lead to more opportunities via the stretch pass. He could activate into the slot from the blueline.
All of this comes with the understanding that there is a very real chance that the team ends up looking silly at 5-on-5 hockey with four forwards out there. Conversely, the choice is too often made that the team should live or die with the status quo when the game is out of reach via conventional means. Efforts should be made to move to more progressive ideas when the game is decided for all intents and purposes, even if conventional wisdom holds that forwards can’t skate backwards as well as defensemen. That may be true in some cases – though it’s fair to wonder how large of a gap truly exists with today’s modern athletes – and these decisions should be made when considering who to deploy situationally.
While it’s fair to acknowledge that deploying this strategy has a higher chance of leading to a goal against, it’s also fair to speculate that getting your best five offensive players out on the ice will lead to a higher probability of scoring a goal. We know teams believe this because that’s how they operate on the power play.
This same concept can be applied defensively as well. Why not partner Mattias Samuelsson with two of the team’s best defensive forwards like Kyle Okposo and Zemgus Girgensons while nursing a one-goal lead late in the third? No where in the NHL rule book does it say that defensemen cannot line up as wingers late in a game when trying to salt it away.
Relying too much on the positional title of the player rather than the unique skills they possess is to devalue their overall possible contribution to the club. The future of hockey very well might be to forget the position titles and instead rely on a player's intrinsic skill set.
Buffalo Sabres Blogger • 
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