This is where my alarm bells start ringing on C bias. Centers have more responsibilities *generally*, but just by virtue of the players we're talking about in a discussion of postseason all-stars, we're talking about outliers.
The most famous case is Gretzky and Kurri. Beyond taking faceoffs, what traditionally "defensive" responsibility did Gretzky take as a C? Kurri often took those responsibilities.
It's also antiquated in the F1F2F3 era of defensive coverage/forechecking. Forwards have become more and more positionless except for faceoffs. And faceoffs as an important event we have recognized more and more as time goes that they simply... aren't.
That's to say - Centers are overrated for their defensive contributions *as a whole*. Individual Cs obviously contribute a ton in some areas (Bergeron) and less in others (Scheifele/Draisatl/McDavid). It's especially annoying to me when we say "X player has more responsibility because they play C" and it's someone like Draisatl who hasn't backchecked a day in his life in comparison to a guy like (just for example sake) Kucherov who... similarly isn't particularly interested in that end of the ice.
It's a way to bolster completely one-way players by attaching the reputation of an entire class of players to which the comparison falls apart with even one critical look.
This is a great point and something we don't talk about enough. I'm also really tired of the C/W cliches.
It would be great to see a lengthier discussion about the best players to fit real archetypes like F1, F2, and F3 on the attack, and the best down low defenders among forwards, etc...
Draisaitl by the way has actually done a lot of great backchecks, he works his ass off. When he's noticeably lagging behind after 2 minute shifts and he also has sometimes poor defensive analytics, I can understand where people get the idea that he's lazy, but it isn't the case. Scheifele is actually uninterested in the back half of the ice, and that's a better target.
