Do NHL fans overrate the importance of 'depth'?

[TruePowerSlave]

Colorado is the posterboy of how depth matters. 16-4 last season with depth and often outplayed their opponent by wide margins, easily one of the most dominating runs of the cap era.

Lost their depth this season and was beat by Seattle, a team that doesn't have a single star player but relies on depth.

 

[LeafGrief]

Depth is underrated. That the expansion teams can go on playoff runs with nothing but depth speaks to the importance.

People will use any excuse not to blame their favourite players for poor performances, don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

 

[BlueDream]

What?

“Hey maybe having more good players than less good players is overrated and doesn’t matter!”

 

[Hockey4Life18]

No. This is the silliest question posted on here in a while, and that of course is a very hard achievement.

 

[Negan4Coach]

On the contrary, it's pretty clear they underrate it. Just look at the way this playoff is going, I mean wow.

 

[CharasLazyWrister]

It's a common refrain when the stars we love and admire fall out of the playoffs early.

'Oh, well, he/they simply didn't have the support around him to succeed. If only the bottom 6 or 4-through-6 defensemen had been better, they surely would have had the time/space necessary to overcome.'

At what point is it BS rationalization to let star players off the hook for simply failing to perform or being outperformed by the best players on the other team?

Without depth, even the biggest stars can’t bring their teams to the promise land. The mindset you suggest is just a simple minded fallacy.

How long was McDavid dominating the league before his team finally looked like a threat to do damage in the playoffs? Could any serious person look at 2018 Connor McDavid and say he was at fault for not “doing more” to bring Edmonton a Cup?

 

[Kraken Jokes]

This doesn't seem to be the popular opinion, it seems to me that Toronto's troubles are not so much Marner, Matthews, Nylander, Reilly. They certainly could use more value for their $11M from Tavares, but not much offence from the rest.

It's that the rest the lineup is under-performing. To start, they're not getting the goaltending. They've chased out goalie after goalie. They're like the Flyers of the '90s.

Outside Reilly and Schenn, the rest of the D are being asked to play above their abilities. Giordano is retirement-ready, Brodie and McCabe are #4 guys being asked to play top-line minutes.

 

[DuklaNation]

No. Depth isn't emphasized enough. Casual take,.

 

[Bouboumaster]

2019 St-Louis pretty Much won it all on depth

 

[KingPuckChoo]

Better believe the Oilers have depth.

yeah showed up really nicely last night once McDrai was off the scoreboard

it's as clear as day to me the amount of depth on that roster

 

[Chileiceman]

Seattle is a very interesting case study of a team that is built around depth. It's a team of middle sixers and #2-#5 D-men. Colorado had 4 (arguably 5 with Byram) all-world talents but its supporting cast were all inferior to Seatlle's depth. There was just no drop off between their lines or really even their D-pairs.

Dallas has more depth (and a comparable level of elite talent at top of lineup) than Colorado and even they are struggling with the Kraken.

 

[OrrNumber4]

Yes. Superstars are what drives the team. They aren't sufficient, but are necessary.

 

[TruePowerSlave]

The salary cap and expansions have left many teams with piss poor depth. If you can roll 4 good lines not many can match that.

 

[NorthStar4Canes]

No. If anything, they're underrated. A couple offensive stars aren't going to carry a depthless team on their backs to a championship. They can be countered by an elite D-man pairing and shutdown line and it's guaranteed they'll run into that during the playoffs. Teams that pose a one-dimensional threat are ultimately doomed because opponents enjoy not having to adjust.

Also underrated; the importance of coaching when it comes to utilizing those depth players to maximum benefit according to their skills, the tactical situation, getting the most out of them, etc.

 

[jimmysheva]

No. We wouldn't have beaten the Blues without depth. They shut down MacKinnon's line with the exception of game 5. Game 6 score was 3-2 and the goals were scored by the 3rd line, second PP unit and 4th line.

 

[LiveLaughDucks]

No, depth is not overrated.

In a playoff where a two year old expansion team eliminated the previous champions…

In a playoff where last week we had two players score four goals in a game and they both lost…

This is bizarre and poorly timed question to be completely honest.

 

[Arthur Morgan]

Depth doesn't matter until you don't have it.

which would mean you have depth and its important not to lose it. Id say it matters all the time.
like here ill give you futures for your depth. well it doesnt matter till its gone so yes I accept

 

[LiveLaughDucks]

It's a common refrain when the stars we love and admire fall out of the playoffs early.

'Oh, well, he/they simply didn't have the support around him to succeed. If only the bottom 6 or 4-through-6 defensemen had been better, they surely would have had the time/space necessary to overcome.'

At what point is it BS rationalization to let star players off the hook for simply failing to perform or being outperformed by the best players on the other team?

And isn’t everything you said here precisely an argument in favor of the importance of depth?? If your star players are not producing… depth is critical.

 

[jiitu]

You need some money to get depth. If star players are costing too much, you dont have money for depth.

No player with 10+M caphit has ever won cup. If i am not badly mistaken, 2021 was the first year when such player even played in second round.

Edit. Technically actually even then the player did not play in PO (jack Eichel), and as the trade was in the middle of year, 10 M caphit did not fully push Vegas that year so actually I would say that first time second round for 10+M player was in 2022.

 

[Cardiac Jerks]

As a hurricanes fan I sure am thankful for the depth they’ve built. They have so many guys contributing offensively and are still managing to win games despite being down 3 of their top 6 forwards. They’ve also had a couple games this round where they’re putting up 5-6 goals despite their best player not getting a single point.

 

[Svechhammer]

In no uncertain terms, if the Canes didn't have the layered depth we have, we aren't where we are now. Ignoring Patches, who really never played for us this year, losing 2 of your top 6 players should destroy the chances of any team, and yet we just leaned into the system and are somehow better for it. And that wouldn't work without having enough quality players to execute it on all offensive and defensive lines.

 

[CanadianHockey]

meh, my eyeballs see every time the oilers do anything significant there's either a Mc or a Drai on the ice

i can't say the same thing about the
80s Oilers
90s Penguins
00's RedWings
10's Hawks
20's Lightning

all those examples, are rosters from A to Z that would have done well, yes even if Lemieux got injured

take one of McDrai out of the lineup and are we even talking today?
...
dunno about you, but my EYEBALLS see a massive drop after Bouchard, and yeah you do need a D to feed you some pucks on the PP i get that, would Marc Andre Bergeron or Joe Corvo be sitting comfortably in 3rd with 20 assists if they had a McDrai to feed all the time?

Come on now, the stats are there and obvious

if you prefer not to see it, it's really a matter of opinion at that point, not worth arguing

MY EYES SEE WHAT MY EYES SEE!

While I agree that Edmonton's depth is not winning them games. I don't think pointing to the drop between Bouchard and Hyman is actually proof of that. Hyman and RNH would still be the #4 and #6 scorer on almost every team remaining in the playoffs. The issue is the drop off from RNH to Kane and the bottom six. It's not that they are liabilities, per se, but that they aren't productive enough to give Edmonton a consistent advantage. EDM's depth production probably ranks in the bottom third amongst remaining teams.

DAL & FLA stand out as the best balance of star power and depth production. CAR and SEA both have great balance but are a step back for top end production. VGK have a slight edge over EDM with depth thus far, but EDM has better top end production. NJD are pretty much a wash with EDM for depth but without the top end production. TOR stands out (in a bad way) with comparable top end scoring to most teams but little from their bottom six.

Based on how teams are faring in their respective series, the Conf Semi-Finals are certainly demonstrating that depth matters. SEA & DAL are both deep... but CAR, FLA, VGK are all leading with a clear edge in production from their depth players.

 

[Ole Gil]

If you're playing the Canes, your star player is up against Jordan Staal, Jaccob Slavin, and Brent Burns all game, so you better have some depth.

Jack Hughes of 43 goals and 99 points has 1 goal and is a -5 in the 3 losses. And the goal was just someone shooting it off his leg.

Meanwhile, Aho has been pretty pedestrian this series offensively with 3pts in 4 games. But nobody has noticed because the Canes have a tone of depth.

 

[DrDangles]

Hilarious post considering OP's avatar.

Those Hawks teams between 2009-2015 were incredibly deep and then fell to shambles after numberous cap casualties.

 

[K1900L]

Looking at Edmonton: no.