The Importance of Power Forwards

[Grape 764]

Many dominating lines in hockey follow a pretty similar structure. You have a sniper, someone who can shoot the puck really well and score a pretty decent number of goals, a playmaker, someone with the hands to deke through a defense and find the passing lanes to their teammates, and a power forward, someone to create space for the sniper and playmaker through body checks and crashing the front of the net to pick up rebounds. While snipers and playmakers generate the points and make the flashy plays, a somewhat under-looked role on those lines is the player who creates the space to make those flashy plays possible. That power forward role is the one I hope Bob Vladovechsenkchushkin is given. While he does lack the offensive ability many power forwards have, I hope to model him in a way to still play that role, minus the offensive production. Big Bob, although a meme, is an important asset to any team. Don’t sleep on the bruiser.