For the right handed people who use right handed sticks I ask “if you knew nothing about hockey and the first thing you started doing at your first hockey practice was poke checking, which hand would you use?” You can think of a hockey stick as a one handed weapon you use in your dominant hand and then think of a hockey shot as a two handed backhand in tennis. In the US a lot of dads just assume hockey is like baseball.
Andrew Peeke would cost nothing from the Jackets. Neither would Severson. Boqvist might be available as well.
See, i can't ever actually answer this truly...because i grew up with a dad who is right handed, shoots left, as per typical for Canadians. But somehow, i still ended up being a righty who shoots right anyway. Just playing with a flat no curve stick, even just a mini stick, that's the way that i used it. That's what felt natural, and the opposite is just beyond awkward.
But it's also not really like some handicap. Tons of top-end RH shooting players are right handed, or at least do things like signing autographs right-handed.
Ovechkin is probably the greatest goal scorer of all time and he's like that. Kovalchuk was always like that and didn't lack for puck skills and "control" or as a shooter. Barzal seems to be like that and he's pretty elite as a puckhandler and passer with deft touch and control. Heck, Cale Makar is another and he seems like he's got decent hands.
There's all sorts of other weird stuff, like "footedness" and "eye dominance" and other weird brain things.
But the main thing is, whatever the reasons...RH shooters are simply a lot more scarce in the NHL in general. That typically makes them a more "premium" assets when all else is equal. Especially on defence where it tends to matter most.
Similarly, if you were to pick up fencing, which hand would you hold the foil / sword in?
"I have something to tell you, i am not left handed either" (Princess Bride)
This is a kind of strange one. For one, i've never really viewed the hockey stick like that because, as i was once told by someone on Television, "
keep your stick on the ice". But also in the sense that i never got into fencing...but just visualizing it...i'd naturally pick the foil up with my left hand, switch it to my right hand to actually use, but most of the footwork would be a lot more natural back the other way around.
There's a lot of weird, not very well understood nuance to it all.
But however we get there...the NHL simply has a far shorter supply of RH Shooters and especially on defence. Hence, everyone's always desperately looking for some.
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