Defensive Forwards: Effort/Commitment vs. Smarts vs. Skill/Physical Advantages

[Trap Jesus]

I think for most defensive play, you can pretty much narrow it down to these 3 categories:

Effort/Commitment: The simple nature of trying hard and hustling, and not cheating up ice for offense. Just the literal willingness to try to impact the game defensively.

Smarts: The ability to read the play developing, use deception to cause turnovers, understanding of positioning and what to do on the ice to disrupt the play defensively.

Skill/Physical Advantages: For defense this mainly boils down to having a good stick (strength/hand-eye), skating (agility, speed to cover more ice), and strength in terms of winning puck battles or hitting. Could also apply to height for reach, or stamina/fitness level as well.

Obviously for most it's a balance between these 3, but looking at some notable defensive forwards throughout history, which would you say was the area they excelled most in? And was there a notable lack of any category for any well-known defensive forwards?

Selke winners listed below (feel free to add your own):

Bergeron:
Gainey:
Carbonneau:
Datsyuk:
Lehtinen:
Brind'Amour:
Fedorov:
Kopitar:
Peca:
Clarke:
Draper:
Francis:
Gilmour:
Graham:
Jarvis:
Kasper:
Kesler:
Madden:
Meagher:
Murray:
O'Reilly:
Poulin:
Ramsey:
Toews:
Yzerman:

Click to read more...

 

[ESH]

Bergeron would definitely fall into the smarts category

 

[scott clam]

In order to be an elite defensive forward, "smarts" are a must.

For certain players like Fedorov and Datsyuk the high-end "skill" is obvious.

But smarts are still the most imporrant skill.

 

[Trap Jesus]

Bergeron would definitely fall into the smarts category

I think it's mostly smarts, but effort/commitment is really close. He actually doesn't have that amazing of a stick, although he is quite strong on the puck. He lacks speed but is really agile.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

thinking about the three elite defensive forwards i watched game in game out when the canucks were good

kesler was really high in category one. he was relentless, like a dog on a bone against puck carriers, and would just wear guys down. he was also very smart and knew when to be zetterberg and when to be datsyuk, if you know what i mean. and for physical skills, he was such a great skater and really strong on top of that.

burrows was a different kind of hard work. he never ever stopped moving his feet and had maybe the best motor i've ever seen. he also was the smartest of the three, borderline genius level anticipation. he could and sometimes did kill a 5-on-3 all by himself. in terms of physical skills, he was a very good skater but not elite. but his stamina was off the charts. he could go full out for an entire kill and still skate the puck past center when the guy got out of the box. i still think he was actually a better defender than kesler.

malhotra was a workhorse too but in a steadier way than the other two. his concentration was maybe the key thing for him, his mental stamina and mistake-free defence. but it was easier for him because he really didn't have the offensive responsibilities that kesler or burrows did. very very smart, knew the angles, knew the tricks, a very veteran experience kind of intelligence. burrows was just god-given intelligence, kesler was more great intuition for what he needed to be doing. he was a great skater and had modano's body, ridiculous hand-eye coordination, probably the best faceoff guy in the league when he was in vancouver.

idk, moral of the story, there are so many different kinds of all three categories. but man we were lucky to have those three together at the same time. watching burrows and kesler on the PK could be as thrilling as bure on a breakwaway or the sedins on a two-minute-long offensive zone cycle.

 

[Michael Farkas]

In order to be an elite defensive forward, "smarts" are a must.

For certain players like Fedorov and Datsyuk the high-end "skill" is obvious.

But smarts are still the most imporrant skill.

Easily. Nothing really comes relatively close. Not that other skills listed aren't important - they are. But you can be in a hurry all you want, but if you don't know where you're going, you're never gonna get there...

Sometimes players are smart and work hard and it's great...Crosby, Clarke, Bergeron, etc. Sometimes players work hard because they have to cover up for weak hockey sense...Wendel Clark, Maurice Richard, Taylor Hall, etc.