Why Elias Pettersson will NEVER play center in the NHL..and why Trevor Linden DID!
Trevor Linden moved from wing to center for the Vancouver Canucks? It was an excellant move! Why can't Elias Petterrson?
Sit back, grab you favorite inhalant, and I'll explain......
HUGE DIFFERENCE between Peterson and Linden (because I get where you're coming from) is this. When covering the slot in the D zone SIZE MATTERS, its the most important place on the ice to cover and being small makes that job more difficult, also the "wear down" factor is huge, centers have a really hard job in the D zone which also includes covering behind the net, it leaves them open to all kinds of punishment. Its the same reason Peterson's SEL team kept him on the wing, even in that league a smaller, non-aggressive player, even one who is 100% committed to doing his job is going to get worn out.
There are smaller centers who are aggressive and secretly nasty that have figured out how to do it, Marc Savard comes to mind, other guys in the past just DIDN'T DO IT Remember Pat Quin's famous quote about Ronning "He's only a center from the red-line in" (Personally I don't think he was being fair, Ronning was no wall-flower, but this was at the beginning of the L.O.D era, when the Gretzky style center (not a lot of tenacity in the D-zone but great on transitions, as long as someone else got the puck back) wasn't really an option anymore.
Linden was tailor-made to play center as he was BIG (Even today Trevor would be considered imposing, I think he played at 6"2 220 lbs) he could skate, he had hockey I.Q (I hate that term but it has its uses) that allowed him to shape the play as it moved through the neutral zone and though he isn't generally remembered this way, Trevor was an aggressive (But clean) player. People forget that until the knee injury which crippled the 2nd half of his career, Linden was a 25 G 40 A 70 PIM player (Including seasons with over 30G 45A and 100 PIM), he isn't remembered enough for his 88-95 play.
Peterson posses all those qualities except the size and aggression. He wasn't deemed durable enough to play there in the SEL, to think that he would be played there in the NHL is pure fantasy, I'm sure he'll be good...but make no mistake and don't allow yourself to be deluded, it will be on the wing...Guaranteed.
This is why a vocal minority of fans (who understand what is required of a center, a lot of people don't) were less than thrilled with the Hughes pick, it's not that there is anything wrong with Hughes, its that we do no have our center ice figured out, and until a team does that, you are 100% SCREWED.
This year we need to tank and get the best center we can in the draft, defensemen have been SO OVERRATED this last decade it's not even funny, yes they are the 2nd most important position (They are on the ice longer than any other skater) but what people don't understand is that a center is both FORWARD AND DEFENSEMAN, and are largely responsible for how good your team is. As an NHL GM said a year or so ago: "If I want to know if a team is any good, I don't have to know their entire roster, I just look at their top two centers.
Sit back, grab you favorite inhalant, and I'll explain......
HUGE DIFFERENCE between Peterson and Linden (because I get where you're coming from) is this. When covering the slot in the D zone SIZE MATTERS, its the most important place on the ice to cover and being small makes that job more difficult, also the "wear down" factor is huge, centers have a really hard job in the D zone which also includes covering behind the net, it leaves them open to all kinds of punishment. Its the same reason Peterson's SEL team kept him on the wing, even in that league a smaller, non-aggressive player, even one who is 100% committed to doing his job is going to get worn out.
There are smaller centers who are aggressive and secretly nasty that have figured out how to do it, Marc Savard comes to mind, other guys in the past just DIDN'T DO IT Remember Pat Quin's famous quote about Ronning "He's only a center from the red-line in" (Personally I don't think he was being fair, Ronning was no wall-flower, but this was at the beginning of the L.O.D era, when the Gretzky style center (not a lot of tenacity in the D-zone but great on transitions, as long as someone else got the puck back) wasn't really an option anymore.
Linden was tailor-made to play center as he was BIG (Even today Trevor would be considered imposing, I think he played at 6"2 220 lbs) he could skate, he had hockey I.Q (I hate that term but it has its uses) that allowed him to shape the play as it moved through the neutral zone and though he isn't generally remembered this way, Trevor was an aggressive (But clean) player. People forget that until the knee injury which crippled the 2nd half of his career, Linden was a 25 G 40 A 70 PIM player (Including seasons with over 30G 45A and 100 PIM), he isn't remembered enough for his 88-95 play.
Peterson posses all those qualities except the size and aggression. He wasn't deemed durable enough to play there in the SEL, to think that he would be played there in the NHL is pure fantasy, I'm sure he'll be good...but make no mistake and don't allow yourself to be deluded, it will be on the wing...Guaranteed.
This is why a vocal minority of fans (who understand what is required of a center, a lot of people don't) were less than thrilled with the Hughes pick, it's not that there is anything wrong with Hughes, its that we do no have our center ice figured out, and until a team does that, you are 100% SCREWED.
This year we need to tank and get the best center we can in the draft, defensemen have been SO OVERRATED this last decade it's not even funny, yes they are the 2nd most important position (They are on the ice longer than any other skater) but what people don't understand is that a center is both FORWARD AND DEFENSEMAN, and are largely responsible for how good your team is. As an NHL GM said a year or so ago: "If I want to know if a team is any good, I don't have to know their entire roster, I just look at their top two centers.
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