I have been meaning to write on this topic for many years, anyone who has heard me ramble about hockey before (and I must say its quite frequent) knows that I like 2-way, 200-foot hockey players more then any other in the NHL. The majority of my favourite players are either a #1 Centers or guys that play at both ends of the ice, I think these players are far more important to the team then skill guys are. I understand the need to have pure goal scorers or guys who get a lot of points, but the players that play an equally important role on defense as they do on offense are the guys that are key to winning in the NHL. Some names that come to mind: Claude Giroux, Ryan Getzlaf, Johnathan Toews, John Tavares and Pavel Datsyuk. Ofcourse there are more skilled players out there, guys like Sidney Crosby, Steven Stamkos, Evgeni Malkin, Patrick Kane, and those guys will show up in the news more frequently and I recognize that. However, as a hockey fan for 17 years I have watched my fair share of hockey and to me two-way players always stood out when I'm watching a game. I enjoy watching the guys who care every second when they are on the ice; whether that is scoring a goal or making a simple back-check these players do it all the time.
Of the 5 players I mentioned above, 4 are Captains and 1 is an Assistant Captain (Datsyuk), and to me that says these types of two-way hockey players are always in a leadership role. Being a Captain or Assistant Captain in the NHL is an extremely important thing, it shows that you have earned trust from your Coaches and fellow players and these guys lead as much on the ice as they do off the ice. While the 5 players I named are all amazing hockey players, often times when you ask people the question "Who would you rather have?" they tend to go with a point scorer more then a two-way guy. Three of the guys I mentioned are always near the top of scoring each year (Giroux, Tavares and Datsyuk), so it's not like I'm saying these guys aren't as skilled as the offense-first guys because I think they are as good. I'd tell people I would rather have Claude Giroux or Ryan Getzlaf over Sidney Crosby and they call me crazy! Everyone has their own opinion, to me I want a player who plays the whole rink and can do important things other then scoring (and I know Crosby does this but he doesn't all the time). I'm not saying I don't like Crosby because I understand how good he is (the best on the planet right now), but If I could have 1 player in the NHL on my team it would be Claude Giroux, 100%. Argue all you want, but thats how I feel and that is what I have told many people before.
Other notable two-way players: Mike Richards, Patrice Bergeron, Henrik Zetterberg, Niklas Backstrom, Mikko Koivu, Matt Duchene, David Backes, Joe Thornton, Ryan Kesler and Anze Kopitar. Of those 10 players, 4 are captains (Zetterberg, Koivu, Backes and Thornton), 5 are assistant captains (Richards, Bergeron, Backstrom, Kesler and Kopitar) and Duchene I am predicting will be wearing an A come season start next week. Call it stupid, call it laughable, but I prefer two-way hockey players over skilled point scorers every time.
-Joel Forman - The Forman Faceoff
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