Is Passing Worth It?

[JigglyGumballs 1,056]

So for this week's' topic of discussion, I wanna talk about something related to player builds. It's something I've been thinking about for a while now. As someone who chose to go slightly different from the meta, my player build currently prioritizes the passing stat over scoring. As you can see from my current build here, I have 90 passing and 77 scoring.

 

 

Now because my passing is pretty high, you may think that I must be getting a lot of assists right? Well if you look at my stats, it kinda shows the opposite. What's even more damning is that assist leaders tend to have the scoring stat over passing stat as well. So what the deal with that? Is passing really not worth it? Lemme discuss a few factors that may or may not play a factor in whether or not passing first builds work or not.

 

 

The first factor I would consider is how much ice time you're getting. You get more opportunities to make plays and get assists the more ice-time you get. And to be honest, this doesn't play much into how well a passing build does at all. Considering I play roughly 29 minutes a game during sims, my current 0.5 point per game pace isn't much and I should be putting up more points if that's the case. So that leaves with the only other factor I can think of.

 

The second and other factor I can think of is whether or not your teammates, or to an extent your team can score. The passing stat basically makes your player pass more, and if you've got teammates that can put up the points, you are bound to contribute on assists more often than not. With that in mind and how LA has been for the past few seasons, you can tell that the team doesn't score too often. At that may be the factor for my case as to why my passing build may not be working. There have been successful pass first defenseman before, but it's a rarity. I don't want to think that your player can't produce offensively without a scoring build, but at this point, the only way these types of builds can work is if they're on a good, high scoring team. Passing really is dependent on the rest of your team as a whole, and I'm starting to lose hope on my 90 passing as well. So next season, I may be changing things up in terms of player build, but for now, we shall see if this will still work out or not.

 

Players should have the choice to put their TPE to any stat they want, and I don't like telling them what to do. Of course I would tell them to avoid penalty shot or leadership, but how people make their builds is entirely up to them. This is just a sort of discussion just to see if passing is really worth it or not, and for me right now, it sorta is. The only thing is that it's highly dependent on how well your team is doing as well. If you have any thoughts, feel free to talk about it down below!

[Spartan 4,402]

I think it is largely predicated in team scoring ability tbh. A bit on your SC stat as well. Letang led the M in assists in '72 with 70 SC and 80 PA, but the first line of forwards could score. Maybe @McWolf has thoughts on it considering he had a HoF pass first defenseman?

[Gustav 6,407]

I despise the narrative that pass-first players are worthless, and I hate it when someone joins the league and they're immediately told they need to make a scorer.

 

Pass-first players do tend to put up lower numbers on the scoreboard in general, so it's probably not in your best interest to make one if you're out to win MVP. But they can be valuable in a lineup and it's perfectly OK to build one.

[Beaviss 4,957]

Might also be from only having one win and the team only having 24 goals scored....

Passing builds are fine idk why they get so much hate. Here is an example of a passing player that is great scoreboard wise. 

 

[JigglyGumballs 1,056]

3 minutes ago, Beaviss said:

Might also be from only having one win and the team only having 24 goals scored....

Passing builds are fine idk why they get so much hate. Here is an example of a passing player that is great scoreboard wise. 

 

Yeah I think LA just needs to git gud. @rory stop fighting people and score smh

[ThePerfectNut 563]

Just check my players. Always been passing builds and had some sort of success with good teams. You won't get success with bad team, gotta get carried

[rory 1,916]

1 hour ago, JigglyGumballs said:

Yeah I think LA just needs to git gud. @rory stop fighting people and score smh

I got fucked by being a pass-first player on an expansion team, don't look at me bro

[McWolf 3,115]

The thing with pass-first builds is that you probably won't see that much of an upgrade in assists, personally, but the whole team will benefit from having a couple players that can roll the puck around, to breakout from the defensive zone, enter the offensive zone and set up shots. I feel like passing is almost more of a neutral/defensive attributes than it is an offensive attribute.

[McWolf 3,115]

And yeah, 6 assists in 12 games is not that good, but I feel like that's more a "LA can't score" thing.

[der meister 3,188]

Ravenwing was pass-first until halfway through his career.

 

https://vhlportal.com/players/playerfocus/230

[Laine 1,361]

On 11/23/2020 at 11:13 AM, JigglyGumballs said:

So for this week's' topic of discussion, I wanna talk about something related to player builds. It's something I've been thinking about for a while now. As someone who chose to go slightly different from the meta, my player build currently prioritizes the passing stat over scoring. As you can see from my current build here, I have 90 passing and 77 scoring.

 

 

Now because my passing is pretty high, you may think that I must be getting a lot of assists right? Well if you look at my stats, it kinda shows the opposite. What's even more damning is that assist leaders tend to have the scoring stat over passing stat as well. So what the deal with that? Is passing really not worth it? Lemme discuss a few factors that may or may not play a factor in whether or not passing first builds work or not.

 

 

The first factor I would consider is how much ice time you're getting. You get more opportunities to make plays and get assists the more ice-time you get. And to be honest, this doesn't play much into how well a passing build does at all. Considering I play roughly 29 minutes a game during sims, my current 0.5 point per game pace isn't much and I should be putting up more points if that's the case. So that leaves with the only other factor I can think of.

 

The second and other factor I can think of is whether or not your teammates, or to an extent your team can score. The passing stat basically makes your player pass more, and if you've got teammates that can put up the points, you are bound to contribute on assists more often than not. With that in mind and how LA has been for the past few seasons, you can tell that the team doesn't score too often. At that may be the factor for my case as to why my passing build may not be working. There have been successful pass first defenseman before, but it's a rarity. I don't want to think that your player can't produce offensively without a scoring build, but at this point, the only way these types of builds can work is if they're on a good, high scoring team. Passing really is dependent on the rest of your team as a whole, and I'm starting to lose hope on my 90 passing as well. So next season, I may be changing things up in terms of player build, but for now, we shall see if this will still work out or not.

 

Players should have the choice to put their TPE to any stat they want, and I don't like telling them what to do. Of course I would tell them to avoid penalty shot or leadership, but how people make their builds is entirely up to them. This is just a sort of discussion just to see if passing is really worth it or not, and for me right now, it sorta is. The only thing is that it's highly dependent on how well your team is doing as well. If you have any thoughts, feel free to talk about it down below!

well there is something I can add onto this.

In my build, I currently have 70 Passing and 99 Scoring, but I've scored 3 times the amount of assists as goals (3 goals to 9 assists). Kinda confusing considering I haven't upgraded my passing since S73

Edited November 25, 2020 by PatrikLaine

[JigglyGumballs 1,056]

25 minutes ago, PatrikLaine said:

well there is something I can add onto this.

In my build, I currently have 70 Passing and 99 Scoring, but I've scored 3 times the amount of assists as goals (3 goals to 9 assists). Kinda confusing considering I haven't upgraded my passing since S73

I mean you are on a contending team, but STHS is weird I guess