Are McDavid/Drai a winger/centre hydrid?

[Kamiccolo]

More interesting topic is, how long can these guys go playing 25 minutes a night and sometimes nearly 30 minutes? They are dominating now but you have to wonder about injury concerns with that much play time and what happens in the back half of the season? Or in the playoffs?

Load management is all the rage right now and the Oilers are doing the complete opposite. It's working in the first 10 games of the season, but half the league is still trying to figure their games out.

 

[Jtown]

What amazes me about McDavid is his speed without the puck. When he is trying to score he looks like pavel bure on drugs but when he doesn't have the puck and is trying to defend he looks like milan lucic.

love mcdavid, and it was a pleasure watching him last night, but he has no interest in playing defense. That puts a lot of pressure on the wingers on his line , but at this point you have to live with it.

 

[Joey Moss]

Every time I watch McDavid play it seems like he plays more like a winger than a C. His faceoff percentage is also horrible and Drai takes more of the important draws.

That said even if he moved to wing permanently he’s still by far the best player on Earth. He definitely has work to do on his defensive game though.

Calling McDavid a poor defensive player is just pulling something out of your ass.

 

[Joey Moss]

love mcdavid, and it was a pleasure watching him last night, but he has no interest in playing defense. That puts a lot of pressure on the wingers on his line , but at this point you have to live with it.

Oh man..

What from the one game you watched? Just couldn't be further from the truth.

 

[Paul4587]

Calling McDavid a poor defensive player is just pulling something out of your ass.

I’m calling it how I see it. McDavid is my favorite player to watch in the league and one of my favorite non Ducks players - he might rank only behind Ovi for me in terms of who I root for. So I’m happy for him to prove me wrong.

 

[Soliloquy of a Dogge]

Imagine believing that Connor doesn't backcheck.

They're mistaking McDavid for the cherrypicker on their own team who stands at center ice or outside his own team's blueline when they're pinned in their own zone waiting for a breakaway opportunity, Gaudreau.

 

[Coffey]

They're mistaking McDavid for the cherrypicker on their own team who stands at center ice or outside his own team's blueline when they're pinned in their own zone waiting for a breakaway opportunity, Gaudreau.

And before that... Jarome.

 

[Paperbagofglory]

Mcdavid has high hockey IQ in all areas of the ice. He uses his offensive skills and speed to be an effective defender. Hes above average defensively and not horrible as some would believe. He speed and the threat of a break out keeps teams from being overly aggressive on the points. He is one of the best in the game at poke checking and gaining body positioning, if speed was the only factor he would not be as effective, he knows how to use angles to his advantage. The last 2 games have not been a good example of that as the Oilers have been overrun by Chicago and then Philly but were honestly lucky to win that game.

You notice that as soon as the Oilers gain possession of the puck when him and Draisaitl are out there the opposition defenders high tail it out of there like their life depends on it. This is why its hard to get sustained zone time against that line because of that panic setting in that he will just rocket past you with 1 or 2 moves.

Saying Mcdavid is weak defensively is just very misinformed.

 

[Slap]

Gretzky-Kurri worked in similar fashion.
It's an Oilers thing.

 

[North Cole]

Mcdavid has high hockey IQ in all areas of the ice. He uses his offensive skills and speed to be an effective defender. Hes above average defensively and not horrible as some would believe. He speed and the threat of a break out keeps teams from being overly aggressive on the points. He is one of the best in the game at poke checking and gaining body positioning, if speed was the only factor he would not be as effective, he knows how to use angles to his advantage. The last 2 games have not been a good example of that as the Oilers have been overrun by Chicago and then Philly but were honestly lucky to win that game.

Saying Mcdavid is weak defensively is just very misinformed.

I dont think we were really that overrun by philly. They had a strong second period, thats about it. Shots were 35-20 with 10 minutes left in the game. They poured another 17 shots on net in the last 10 minutes while having a 5 on 3. We were just playing to get the puck out, up 6-1 and kept them to the perimeter for most of their chances.

To be honest, it felt a lot like philly was the older oilers where we used to out shoot teams but it never really seemed like we were dangerous, and our goaltending was soft. Games like that are why advanced stats have some flaws on their own. You see the shot totals and think wow, koskinen for vezina, but I was never really worried during the third period.

 

[Aceboogie]

Why not?

He has all the required skills to be an amazing defender. Speed, size, brains, skill.

He is more offensively focused ATM like most young players, but if he wanted to be a Selke winner, I don't see why he wouldn't be able to get into that conversation.

He shouldnt ever even think about winning a Selke. Being a two way center requires playing much lower in your defensive zone. McDavid is elite/best in the world off the rush. You need to play higher in the D zone to create quick rushes. He is way, way, way more impactful playing higher in the zone (which leads to some defensive chances against) than he would be if he played lower in the zone and sacrificed quick rushes

McDavid not being great defensively isnt due to inability or lack of effort, its designed. Him and LD are being run similar to how Strome/McDavid were run in junior

 

[GirardSpinorama]

Landeskog and Mack does the same thing. Defensive wingers are underrated.

 

[Aceboogie]

Landeskog and Mack does the same thing. Defensive wingers are underrated.

This.

Mark Stone is by far the best defensive forward in the league and wont win a selke because he isnt a center

 

[Aerchon]

Do they essentially split the C/W duties?

It looks like Drai takes the majority of the faceoffs, does he also take on the C duties in the defensive zone?

Every time I watch McDavid play it seems like he plays more like a winger than a C. His faceoff percentage is also horrible and Drai takes more of the important draws.

That said even if he moved to wing permanently he’s still by far the best player on Earth. He definitely has work to do on his defensive game though.

He will take defensive zone faceoffs too and it utilised more on the pk (I think). They basically split the C/W role as required.

Yes, they share centre duties. Pretty much whoever’s backchecks first plays centre on that particular play, they’re constantly interchanging all duties all over the ice and whoever is closest takes that particular duty.

They’re only able to do this because they’re 2 elite 200 foot players with chemistry and hockey IQ through the roof.

They played like this last year too, nothing new.

Yes they both share the center role.

Yes they are both very good at it and because of their high hockey iq can pull it off.

Yes it makes them hard to defend against.

They have been doing this for at least a full season +.

However it also causes issues in there own end sometime and also results in lost coverage. Last night against Philly that was on display.

It works and they will get better but I sometimes wonder if that #1 line of McDraissian wouldn't be much better in terms of two way play if they just used McDavid as a full fledged winger. There is no doubt in my mind that Draisaitl is the better two way center.

 

[Akrapovince]

Yes they both share the center role.

Yes they are both very good at it and because of their high hockey iq can pull it off.

Yes it makes them hard to defend against.

They have been doing this for at least a full season +.

However it also causes issues in there own end sometime and also results in lost coverage. Last night against Philly that was on display.

It works and they will get better but I sometimes wonder if that #1 line of McDraissian wouldn't be much better in terms of two way play if they just used McDavid as a full fledged winger. There is no doubt in my mind that Draisaitl is the better two way center.

Only concern with having McDavid as a winger is that on the backcheck he is most likely the first player back.

He’s going to be the centre and be the third defensemen down-low, as opposed to leaving his assignment and covering point guy. (Where Draisatl, or last one back should be).

Or this is what I think.

 

[viceroy]

They’re 2 elite 200 foot players.

What now? Sure, neither is completely defensively inept but we're not talking Patrice Bergeron's over here. Then again a lot of Oilers fans were telling us that RNH was comparable to Datsyuk.

Anywho, McDavid is the league's best Centre who happens to be at best mediocre on face-offs and Drai is a great Winger who's good on the draw.