Franchise centers vital to winning Stanley Cup
Jun 17, 2016, 11:04 AM | Updated: 12:21 pm
FILE - In this May 15, 2016 file photo, United States' Auston Matthews, left, fights for the puck with Germany’s Torsten Ankert during a Hockey World Championships Group B match in St.Petersburg, Russia. Matthews spent the past year playing in Switzerland, where he established himself as the NHL's top-ranked draft prospect. Matthews is from Arizona and among more than 100 draft-eligible players taking part in the league's rookie combine in Buffalo. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky, File)
(AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky, File)
Coyotes president and CEO Anthony LeBlanc took a lighthearted approach in April to the team’s inability to win the NHL Draft Lottery for a second straight season.
https://twitter.com/anthonydleblanc/status/726583888068276224
Jokes aside, it’s easy to see why the Coyotes wanted to win so badly. The 2015 and 2016 draft prizes, Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews, aren’t just generational talents, they define what is arguably the most important position in today’s NHL.
It hasn’t been enough to simply have good centers since the 2004-05 lockout ushered in a more open style of play with emphasis on speed and skill. In the post-lockout era, no team has won the Stanley Cup without at least one elite, franchise center.
“The franchise center is important because he is able to do the hardest thing in hockey, score goals and create offense consistently,” Rogers Sportsnet NHL analyst Mike Johnson said. “In the playoffs where checking is tighter and defensive game plans are more closely followed, that center is still able to create, not only for himself but his linemates as well. They bring an element of confidence and calm that can be impactful to the rest of the team.”
Take a look at the list below for proof.
Year Cup winner Franchise center Point total
2006 Carolina Eric Staal 100
2007 Anaheim Ryan Getzlaf 58
2008 Detroit Pavel Datsyuk 97
2009 Pittsburgh Sidney Crosby 103
2010 Chicago Jonathan Toews 68
2011 Boston Patrice Bergeron 57
2012 L.A. Anze Kopitar 76
*2013 Chicago Jonathan Toews 48
2014 L.A. Anze Kopitar 70
2015 Chicago Jonathan Toews 66
2016 Pittsburgh Sidney Crosby 85
The point totals weren’t always elite for these centers (although they were always good), but when Getzlaf, Bergeron and Toews didn’t put up league-leading type point totals, they still impacted the game immensely in other ways.
Getzlaf, Bergeron, Toews, Crosby, Datsyuk and Kopitar are all perennial candidates for the Selke Trophy as the league’s top defensive forward. Datsyuk and Bergeron have each won the award three times while Toews won it in 2013. Rod Brind’Amour won it back-to-back years for Carolina, giving Staal the perfect complement in the Hurricanes lineup.
“The center position has a huge impact on the game, from faceoffs, to puck control, to stability of all five players on the ice,” said Coyotes coach Dave Tippett, citing Crosby and Toews as the greatest examples. “The top centers have more opportunity (ice time) and the skills to have the biggest impact — not just on the scoreboard but with the identity of the team.”
Center is the one position on the ice that truly has to cover the entire 200 feet of the ice surface, helping with the breakout down low in the defensive zone, helping on the forecheck in the offensive zone and often carrying the puck in between.
While Cup teams have proven repeatedly that they can win without franchise goalies, and by shuffling their personnel on the wings, top centers have been indispensable. The only other position that can make a similar claim is the No. 1 defenseman.
Detroit had Nicklas Lidström, Anaheim had Scott Niedermayer, Chicago has Duncan Keith, L.A. has Drew Doughty, Boston has Zdeno Chara and Pittsburgh has Kris Letang, leaving Carolina as the sole post-lockout winner without a franchise level blue-liner.
The Coyotes already have that piece in Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and they have some promising center prospects in the pipeline in Dylan Strome, Christian Dvorak and Ryan MacInnis, but GM John Chayka said the Coyotes will at least explore the possibility of a trade with Toronto for the No. 1 pick in next week’s draft and the right to select Matthews, a Scottsdale product and a higher-rated prospect than any of the players in the Coyotes’ system.
Chayka’s guess is that Toronto will want too much in return, as the Maple Leafs should for such an important position.
“I don’t see any way they trade that pick — not with how critical that position is,” said Hall of Fame center Mike Modano, who won a Cup with the Dallas Stars in 1999. “Especially if Matthews turns out to be what people think he will be. Toronto would never hear the end of it. They’d be ridiculed from here on out and they already are being ridiculed for the Phil Kessel trade.”
It may not be impossible to win the Cup without a franchise center, but 11 seasons worth of post-lockout evidence isn’t helping that argument.
“I’m trying to think of a pre-lockout team that won it when they didn’t have a franchise center,” said Modano, who finally settled on the New Jersey Devils. “You look at us, Detroit, Colorado, Pittsburgh with Mario (Lemieux), Edmonton with Gretzky and Messier. Almost everyone had one and a lot of teams had a 1-2 punch down the middle.
“But when you watch the last half dozen to dozen years, with how the game has evolved, I just don’t think it’s possible to win the Cup without that guy.”
* — The lockout shortened the season to 48 games
