What is a Defender?

[jacobcarson877 2,432]

Observing some trends in recent seasons, and a suspicion as to which position will be most optimal when In recreate, I have a few hypothetical questions I hope to answer sometime soon.

My last media spot was about wingers, and how they seem to be entirely at the whims of their center. It seems very unlikely that a player playing on the wings is going to win a scoring title in the near future. But beyond individual success, this realization has brought me to a series of questions about positions. What are the roles of each position, and how can we build to conform to team success?

 

This week I plan to take a look at defenders. With a huge breakout success last season from Brian Kowalski, and a dominant start from Ryuji Sakamoto, neither of which had ever really been positional leaders before, I have decided to look at their builds and their utilization to determine why they work so well.

 

The question truly begins with passing. Is increasing passing a good thing, and is it any better for defenders rather than forwards? The answer seems like it should be yes.

So, what else is a pass then?

Well, one might suggest it is a way to give other players on the ice a better opportunity to score. At least that’s the idea in real life. But, as far as a sim league without normalized and generally average attributes, Simon concurs that passing would not work as expected.

“The simulator is not build around impossible scenario of having a team of players with 1 of passing. If the simulator is a complex mathematic equation (Like the Matrix if you saw the movies) and changing one variable extremely like you did result in unexpected result. Passing is very important aspect of hockey and the simulator react to the absence of passing versus others important stats in the simulator by over utilizing more theses important stats. If you were to try the same experience with Hit Slider to 100, you would get different result.”

As we know, the meta reinforced this idea that we could break the bounds of the system by giving it unexpected results. We cranked up shots, and who cared if the 3 passes we made got intercepted? But this assumed an increase in scoring.

 

Brian Kowalski for example, is built like a traditional forward, shooting regularly, and as such tends to score a decent number of goals, and gets a ton of rebound assists. This is a style that many great defenders have used, like Hard Markinson.

 

But what is Ryuji Sakamoto then?

Sakamoto has neither Scoring nor Passing. So why is he putting up strong offensive numbers?

This is where the question comes into play. What is the role of a defender?

I think that answer lies in team composition, and maybe the simple answer is, to be whatever the team needs. D.C. has a lot of traditional forwards, and with Vincent Laroche-Gagnier, Jason and Lucas Grey fitting that description, as well as Mark Calaway growing into a strong shooting defender, Ryuji Sakamoto gets the opportunity to finally be utilized in the way the user had intended from the very beginning. Sakamoto’s job is to get, and then skate with the puck. Whether it is primary, or what I imagine would be a significant number of secondary assists, Sakamoto has mastered the transition. This allows his team to be in the offensive zone more often and as such score more goals. I imagine D.C. would be strong off the rush, scoring quickly after entering the zone, but alas that would take too much effort to prove.

Edited September 6, 2023 by jacobcarson877