Right, and there's a context when you're in the winning window where you need to fill your center line with steady reliable players. But if you're not aiming for playoff, that's pure development time you could use to develop guys like Dach at their natural center position.
Not to pick on you. But all through this thread. One of the constant complaints about Dach is his lack of face off skills. Most young centers that come into the league suck on the draw. It takes years of practice and repetition to perfect. If you take a look at the best face off centers in the league. The vast majority of them are in their mid to late 20's and in the case of Bergeron, much older. Before they become good to great at it.
While I agree with you. Nothing deflates a PP more than losing an opening face off in the opposing teams zone. Only to lose 30 odd seconds, retrieving the puck and bringing it up again.
Ok but the average number of face offs taken by a center in a game is something like 15. A 40% face off guy wins 6 and a 50% face off guy wins 7.5. At the end of the day, I'd rather have a guy whose play is strong at playing center than a guy who is good at face offs.
Agreed, that's why I agreed with WTK. My point was that there are times where face offs can be important. You can shelter a player as much as you like. But eventually they may be placed in a situation where a face off win is key in the outcome of the game.
True. I hope he gets better at face offs. I was more reacting to people who want him playing the wing rather than center because he's winning 1 or 2 fewer face offs than he should. I didn't intend to sound like I was disagreeing with you.
We're on the same page. Yes we can have two centers on a line, so Dach wouldn't be taking the draw. Or like you mentioned, a winger who is stronger on face offs. Say we have him and Suzuki, or him and Dvorak. There's always a chance of either of them getting punted from the face off circle. Most of the time it's not a big deal. I'm talking about in vital situations, or in a late game where it's a defensive zone draw.
Haha...the last thing I want to do is move Dach to the wing.
Situationally, faceoffs are important....I don't know how many faceoffs are taken per game, on average.
Personally I don't know either. @Justsayin threw out the number 15 per center on average. Which seemed reasonable to me. Maybe a bit high.
It’s more his injuries that have robbed him. One could argue that the impact of Covid robbed everyone across the league simultaneously and similarly, not Dach moreso in particular. Agreed on taking a patient approach.
I would say that in any situation, the best is to gain possession, but it's not only on the center, like almost everything, it's a teamwork.
yeah for sure, that's why I said situationally, they're important.
I don't think anyone is undervaluing face offs. All that was said is that a 21-year-old 3OA center ought not to be turned into a winger for the sole reason that he's not yet good at face offs.
I feel with faceoffs it's mostly just experience, you've got to take a lot of them and like you said, this year is good practice because the stakes aren't as high.
That's not true. If you're first line is the one drawing the penalty. There is a good chance the 2nd unit starts.
