We’re back to the mail bag this weekend, answering a question coming at us from a D-Man who played U18 Major last season – how do defenceman get noticed by scouts at the next level?
Tip #1 – Be a Good Skater
In today’s game, skating is just so important. Was skating important in 1996? Yes. But back in the day, defenceman moved the puck up to the forwards and played a much more reserved game for the most part. Fast forward 25 years and the use of the weak side D is more prevalent in breaking out of the defensive zone. Defenceman pinch on just about every rim in the offensive zone. Have you watched the WJC this year? Watch how the defenceman get off the wall and into the middle in the O zone. It’s so quick and seamless. Here’s an example from Kyle MacLennan – Kyle provides great hockey analysis, a good follow on Twitter if you have it –
Being a great skater can also mask some inefficiencies that a player may have in their game. For example, if you’re an elite skater but you struggle positionally (at times), your feet allow you to recover. If you can be first to the puck, you can mask some inefficiencies that you may have defending in 1v1 situations. Hockey is a possession game, and being the first to it is the first step in winning the possession game.
I told a person in my circle of friends that if you’re an average skater at the U18/Prep level, you’ll have a hard time keeping pace at a Major Junior camp and I don’t think the person believed me until the person saw it with their own eyes. I cannot stress this enough – in 2022, speed is trending in the scouting world.
Tip #2 – Be a Good Decision-Maker (High Levels of Hockey IQ)
This tip is hard to describe, because the situations vary as does the stimuli. No two plays are exactly the same. So I’ll use this verbal example;
We have the puck – one decision that you make with the puck gives your team mate plenty of time and space in the neutral zone. The other choice handcuffs your D partner and leads to a turnover.
OR
One puck choice allows us to enter the zone cleanly, but only gives us a 3v3. The other choice would give us a breakaway if executed, but the percentage is so low that it ends up getting picked off and the other team attacks us 3v2.
Decision-making is not just with the puck. Knowing when, where and how to support the puck in all zones, knowing when to jump down into the offensive seams, etc are just a few examples of off-the-puck decisions that lead to offence, good defence, and maintaining critical puck possession.
Tip #3 – Win the Little Battles
If I’m being honest, this one is sometimes overlooked by scouts if a prospect is a really good skater, has really high-end offensive talent and/or can QB a Power Play. That said, it’s something that I key in on when assessing a defenceman because of the point I made earlier about possession. If we win more 50/50 pucks along the wall, we possess the puck more and our chances of winning increase. We can go 2-for-4 on the PP but give up 3 goals in our net front because of lost battles, we likely lose the hockey game. No one wants to be labeled ‘easy to play against’ and the guys who don’t consistently compete on pucks are often labeled as such.
Mainstream media often influences people into believing that the flashy offensive defenceman (ie Cale Makar) is the going rate for D now a days. But there is still a lot of real estate for guys like Josh Manson. Guys like Erik Cernak. Guys that have mobility and a mean streak. Maybe it’s just the generation that I played in, but I am a firm believer that you can never have enough depth on the back end with guys like Jan Ruutta (formerly of Tampa).
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