Kin
New member
herman said:Dubas favours defenders who excel at transition and gap control (which in and of itself requires above average skating) but were not leaned on for direct offense. The way the Leafs and Marlies play, the defense needs to be mobile to fill in for forwards to cause mini-powerplays on isolated sections of the ice, and they need to be good forcing dump-ins (gap control), and retrieving dump-ins to spring exits. Size helps, but is not a requirement. Hunter's preferred profile accomplished those tasks through stick reach, but the cost was to skating capability.
Right but, again, I think that drafting specifically to fit into a system or with defined roles inherently limits what a coach/team can do. Passing on a prospect because they don't have the specific toolkit you're looking for means that you'll probably miss on some talented guys but also you're going to have limited options for when a specific strategy is effectively countered.
That's what I think we've seen in the last couple of playoff series. How does the team adapt when things that worked during the regular season stop working? Teams usually won't build their special teams units specifically with another team in mind but in the playoffs that changes so having a wide range of skills/talents/whatever provides a coach with options that can be required if matched up against another good coach.
No matter your mindset or approach, you can't fall in love with it to the extent that you miss on diversifying the talent base.