How a player like Zach Hyman provides NHL roadmap for Nils Hoglander

On a recent Monday I joined Ben Ennis and JD Bunkis as I always do on Sportsnet 590 The FAN’s Good Show for Leafs Hour, where we discussed something that’s hard to pin down when evaluating a hockey team: maturity.

It’s been a source of regular criticism of this Leafs group that they’ve been able to play with the best teams and lock it down defensively and bring the effort, but in the past there were stretches of times where they just…didn’t.

It’s impossible to watch this season so far and pin down moments you’d plainly label “mature,” but as I noted on that show, with a hockey team “maturity” is simply the absence of immature moments. Thus far, the Leafs have been pleasantly low on moments that would make you scratch your head and wonder “the heck happened there?” While only through 10 games, that shows a sign of maturity, of being a team you feel you can better trust.

That same process of coming to trust a group plays out with individuals as well, only there’s a major difference. When you don’t trust your team, you still have to play the guys you have. When you don’t trust a player, their minutes can be pared down to single digits (or to the press box and practices) until they earn more.

A direct tie there is, you can’t accumulate much trust when you’re playing single-digit minutes or watching from the sky in a suit. Which brings me to Zach Hyman, and in a roundabout way, Nils Hoglander.

[snippet id=5037373]

I was with the Toronto Marlies coaching staff doing video work during Hyman’s year in the AHL, and he’s example 1A of where I’m going with all this: if you’re a mature player who’s willing to do the things the coaches ask of you, if you’re willing to eat all your vegetables, you’ll be the first to get to eat metaphorical dessert.

One of my first days with the Marlies was in Syracuse, and as the team wrapped up practice with a quick game of “Last Puck,” I had an “oh no” moment.

In Last Puck, every skater on the ice, 20-plus guys, gathers around the net with the (usually back-up) goalie until they score the last puck, which usually takes all of nine seconds and off everyone goes. This was a Marlies team with William Nylander, Kasperi Kapanen, and about a dozen other current NHLers. In last puck, Hyman got a touch, and went for…a wraparound. As in, with 20-plus guys available he wrapped the puck around, got stuffed, then tried to stuff in multiple rebounds through the goalie’s pad. Again, I was like “oh no.” His offensive game wasn’t what you’d call elite.

In the weeks to come, I’d learn why Hyman was a player worthy of top line minutes: maturity and trust. If he never scored a point, you loved his game. He forechecked with his stick extended and finished through the body. He won pucks back, he was in his spot in the neutral zone forecheck and worked hard covering players who never got the puck, but he worked nonetheless — just in case — like a good defensive back in football who never gets thrown at. That maturity allowed the talented guys he played with to spend more time in the offensive zone and less time chasing the puck on D.

As a trade-off for all that defensive effort, it meant he was spending more time on the ice than most other forwards, he had good linemates and, in turn, he was able to get some numbers. He’d have scored 20 that year in the AHL had his great play not led to a promotion to the Leafs for 16 games. Because he was playing that much with great players, his offensive game developed. The trust he earned meant he knew he’d get solid minutes, which meant he felt he could try to be more creative without the risk of repercussions. He crawled, then walked, then started to run. Two years ago Hyman scored 21 goals in 71 NHL games, and last year he potted 21 in 51, a 30-plus goal pace.

This sounds like the tale of one player’s path, but it’s the story we’ve seen in reverse countless times — a young player with offensive ability wants to come in and show said skills, so they cheat for opportunities. They stand on the wrong side of piles hoping for offensive bounces, they buy time behind the play on the back check hoping for turnovers, they let teammates do the hard F1 work to conserve their energy for offensive chances that may never come.

When you do those immature things you don’t earn your coach’s trust, you don’t get the minutes, you don’t get the points, and nobody’s happy.

Nils Hoglander is not Zach Hyman, not in stature or expectations or style. But what he’s done so far this year for the Canucks has been Hyman-like, and proof that the qualities Hyman demonstrates can work for those who aspire for more offence-first roles.

Hoglander has done the little things necessary to stay on the ice and get the minutes, and in turn, get the numbers. It’s actually kind of stunning more rookies don’t go all-in on “the little things,” but I understand everyone loves boxcar stats, and most NHL prospects grew up piling those on with ease, so I guess it’s a hard sell. But boy, is it the smart way to get more minutes.

Hoglander has dressed every game so far for the Canucks as a 5-foot-9, 20-year-old, tallying three goals and three assists for six points in 13 contests. Five regular Canucks forwards are playing less than him on average each night. He’s regularly playing with Bo Horvat and Tanner Pearson, and good linemates help. He’s regularly facing the opposition’s best players, such as Connor McDavid, which helps you get better. I don’t know what his full season will look like, or if this is sustainable. However, I bet he will sustain being dressed consistently, at an age not many players are — not because of their stats, but because of what we’re talking about here.

You can hear it from the coach’s mouth himself, here’s Travis Green on Hoglander defending (which is any time you don’t have the puck) and his big opportunity with the Horvat line:

“It worried me a little bit before the year started, but we wanted to try it and he’s shown that he can play on the other end of the puck. He knows that he has to play well when he’s playing with that line, he’s a quick player, he’s learned to play inside the dots in his own zone and also get to puck battles when he has to.”

A few nights ago Hoglander scored a goal that could be deemed “right time, right place,” with a dash of good hands, but it’s everything that preceded that fortuitous bounce that was so good.

Here’s the shift, starting with the spin at the blue line, culminating with the goal.

The spin to start things off looks fancy, but it’s really good puck protection at the blue line, a critical turnover area. At worst here, with hard contact, he’s shielded the puck and should be able to get it in deep. It’s a safe and smart way to keep possession.

This picture below, of a 5-foot-9 forward throwing his leg out to cut off the much-bigger defender (Josh Morrissey) while shielding the puck with one hand should make skill coaches gasp it’s so beautiful.

Seriously this is pretty as a sunset, it’s exquisite.

That aside, going to the net and protecting the puck are replicable ways to produce offence, which is why coaches love it so.

He re-attacks on the forecheck and has a good stick, but the puck squeaks by him to the Jets defender behind the net, when Hoglander does a small things coaches love — he doesn’t chase behind the net. He cuts up in front of the short post and heads back up through the middle.

Why do coaches like that? Because now he’s another stick in the middle of the ice to pick off a pass — which he does — as opposed to just chasing up the rear (which looks like a more dogged pursuit) of the defenceman who’s likely moved the puck up through the middle…where you’d ideally like Hoglander to be.

And he was there.

You get the point.

Now look at the pic below where Hoglander has the puck. He could try some risky drop pass to a teammate near the blue line. Or he could hang on to the puck and try to dangle that Jets player and keep possession.

Instead he just chips it by that Jets forward, safely, and goes to get it. Oh, and then he protects the puck with his body and works hard to get past Morrissey, again.

After that battle, is he content to sit out along the boards and watch the play develop? Nope. He jumps through to the net (quality offensive theme), where there’s a sizeable opening.

So sure, he scores on a “lucky” bounce this shift, and that’s great. But even if he didn’t, his coaches would show this shift in video the next day to demonstrate “the little things” that they’re looking for from everyone.

Real quick here, remember the diving, one-handed pass he made to Tanner Pearson for a goal? It was the same as what we’re talking about above. Prior to that he stopped on the pile of a D-zone faceoff (not all wingers do that well) fished out the loose puck, and once again chose to chip and chase the puck down rather than try something risky at a line.

It’s the little things (positioning) that lead to the opportunities that lead to the big things (points) that lead to sustained careers.

Hyman, and maybe someday Hoglander, should be examples for players trying to stick in the NHL, particularly the young guys, even as point-getters. If maturity is the absence of immature moments, young players can demonstrate it and earn trust by doing the right things on repeat, so they can find themselves on the ice more and with good linemates to do the things that will eventually get them paid the big bucks.

[relatedlinks]