As NHL power plays ditch defensemen, what does it mean for the role of PP QB?

As Cale Makar stepped onto the ice to prepare for his first NHL game, teammate Tyson Barrie had a sinking feeling.

Makar had been the highest-profile prospect in the sport and was fresh off an appearance in the NCAA championship game before he signed his entry-level contract with the Colorado Avalanche. There he was, taking the morning skate before Game 3 of a 2019 first-round playoff series, displaying many of the same skills as Barrie.

Only Makar was younger, faster on his blades and smoother on his edges, cheaper against the salary cap and a fellow right-handed shooting defenseman to boot.

“I’ve played the game long enough and skated with enough guys that I got on the ice with him for the first time and you could tell just the way he moved and passed the puck and shot and everything,” Barrie said. “You knew he was going to be the real deal.

“You do the math. You put two and two together. I realized there might not be the need for two guys in that position.”

Both of Barrie’s premonitions proved correct.

Makar scored that night against his hometown Calgary Flames and has quickly gone on to become one of the best players in the NHL. He has a Calder, Norris and Conn Smythe to his credit — the latter coming as part of the Avalanche’s Stanley Cup title last season — all while garnering comparisons to Bobby Orr.

And to pave the way for Makar, Barrie, who had one year left on his contract, was dealt to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2019 offseason.

“I figured they might be able to get this guy to do the same thing — if not better — for a few years before they have to pay me,” Barrie said.

It was evident to Barrie — and anyone else following hockey — that Makar was going to make him expendable in Denver.

The salary cap played a role in that, but the Avalanche very well could have used both players if this were a decade or two ago.

The continued leaguewide shift to using just one defenseman on the power play has altered roster constructions of teams. The result for Barrie, an excellent puck-mover but a veteran with a notable salary, is it’s become increasingly difficult to stay locked in with one team.

A similar scenario befell Barrie before the trade deadline this season. He was dealt from the Edmonton Oilers to the Nashville Predators, a move made with salary cap implications to change the complex of the Oilers’ defense and give top power-play responsibilities to Evan Bouchard.

With teams requiring fewer blueliners to run their power plays, those older offensively inclined defensemen need to adapt their skills so they can be more impactful in other situations if they want to stick around.

Some of the best NHL teams of their eras, those littered with offensive superstars, almost never used four forwards on the power play.

Not the 1970s Montreal Canadiens, who sometimes even used three defensemen — Larry Robinson, Guy Lapointe and Serge Savard — with one serving as the net-front guy. Not the 1980s Oilers. Not the 1990s and early 2000s Detroit Red Wings.

“We used to use the point men as a safety guard,” Scotty Bowman, the Hall of Fame coach of those Canadiens and Red Wings teams, said. “As soon as you get the puck (in the offensive zone), you’d get it back to the point.”

Even those mid-2000s Red Wings had Nicklas Lidstrom, Mathieu Schneider and Chris Chelios on the roster. Later, Brian Rafalski joined the team. There wasn’t a huge desire for change.

Defensemen, as they had in the past, could continue to run the show from the blue line by bombing slap shots or one-timers from the point or looking for teammates in front of the net.

“We had some of the best offensive defensemen around, so we made something work based on the personnel that we had,” said Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft, a video coach in Detroit from 2005 to 2008.

Then Alex Ovechkin came along with the Washington Capitals.

It’s far too simplistic to suggest Ovechkin caused a change to the whole landscape of power plays throughout the league. But his emergence sure helped.

Ovechkin is on track to be the NHL’s career goals leader thanks in part to his one-timer from between the top of the circle and the faceoff dot. It’s such a remarkable shot that everyone knows it’s coming and it’s still often successful.

The Capitals needed a defenseman — just one — to work the top of the point and feed Ovechkin passes. Mike Green was the lucky guy. Green got an endorsement from Hershey Bears coach Bob Woods, the Capitals’ AHL bench boss, after GM George McPhee asked if he could do the job.

Then-coach Bruce Boudreau was sold.

“I wasn’t relying on his defensive abilities,” Boudreau said of Green, laughing. “So, he had to do something good.

“Here was a first-round pick who could skate like the wind. He could carry the puck, go deep. and then get back. He had good shot and a good offensive mind. He was able to pass it right in Alex’s wheelhouse.”

Green’s job wasn’t just to tee up the NHL’s best sharpshooter. He had to keep opposing penalty kills honest and provide another scoring threat.

Green had 31 goals in 2008-09 — 18 of which came with the man advantage. The following season the Capitals had the league’s best power play at 25.2 percent — 3.4 percentage points ahead of second-place Montreal.

“You have to have great vision. You have to know when to pass it. You have to be able to pull people over,” Boudreau said. “Quinn Hughes is the same way in Vancouver right now.”

Usage of power plays featuring four forwards and one defenseman grew from there, albeit slowly and depending on certain circumstances.

Data collected in December 2022

Teams that opted for that scenario tended to shift from an overload formation to a 1-3-1 setup, popularized by Hall of Fame player-turned-coach Adam Oates and the Sedins in Vancouver. (The Canucks did often use two defensemen, though.)

Passes to players on the flanks for one-timers got goaltenders to move more than a slapper from the point ever did.

From there, power plays started moving downhill where the forwards on the flanks were in motion toward the net rather than just stationary to create havoc for penalty kills.

“The guys that are killing can all skate,” San Jose Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson said. “If you don’t get them out of position then you’re not going to get much out there.”

There were some slow adapters.

Karlsson — the greatest offensive defenseman of his generation — played on the first power play for the Ottawa Senators as a rookie, but he was often paired with fellow blueliner Filip Kuba. It wasn’t until the playoffs that season that he was given the reins unincumbered.

“I was kind of out of position in that league back then,” Karlsson said, “but somehow it worked out for the better.”

To that point, as Woodcroft noted, it depends on personnel.

Glen Gulutzan used four defensemen — Alex Goligoski, Stephane Robidas, Trevor Daley and Sheldon Souray — on the power play in his first season as head coach in Dallas in 2011-12. He pivoted to a four-forward first unit the following campaign after Souray left the team.

Boudreau used two blueliners on both units at times in Minnesota, too — Ryan Suter, Jared Spurgeon, Matt Dumba and Jonas Brodin.

There’s no question that the usage of one defenseman power plays has skyrocketed in recent years. That’s led to more offensive proficiency, too. Power plays have never been better leaguewide.

Data collected in December 2022

“The initial reticence of using it was on the defensive side. You didn’t want to give anything up,” Woodcroft, who has run power plays in the NHL as an assistant coach, said. “But if you look at the results of the power play that go four-and-one (forwards to defensemen), it speaks for itself.”

The Oilers own the NHL’s top power play — and have for the better part of the last four seasons with Gulutzan at the controls.

Gulutzan arrived in Edmonton as an assistant coach in time for the 2018-19 season after serving as the bench boss of the archrival Flames. The Oilers owned the league’s worst power play with a measly 14.76 percent success rate before Gulutzan’s arrival — amazing considering Connor McDavid won the Art Ross Trophy as scoring champion in 2017-18.

Since then, they’ve been ninth, first, first, third and first, respectively, over the last five campaigns. They were proficient 29.5 percent of the time in 2019-20, the fifth-best success rate in NHL history. Their 32.6 percentage this season is the best of all time.

The Oilers had lefties McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins as their primary forwards — the same three players that drive the power play today. Gulutzan studied old Red Wings power plays that featured a slew of left-handed forwards like Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Holmstrom for inspiration.

“I felt it was a little bit stagnant,” Gulutzan said. “Coming from Calgary, I just saw how dynamic this 97 player was.

“I really didn’t want to run the power play through a defenseman. I’d rather get it into the hands of the most dynamic player in the world — and I want him to have motion.”

Gulutzan wanted his best players to be more instinctual. He calls the Oilers’ power play — especially for the big three — as “playing a road hockey type game with some structure.”

What did that mean for the blueliner running the show — whether that was Oscar Klefbom, Darnell Nurse or Barrie? How about now with Bouchard? Gulutzan said the defenseman’s job is to gain the middle of the ice and then make the correct read for a pass to the side.

“I describe our defenseman as not a quarterback,” Gulutzan said. “I describe him as a facilitator on our power play.

“The defenseman’s job is to get the puck into the best players’ hands in great spots. Rather than the power play running through the defenseman, the power play is really running through Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.”

There are times when teams are still inclined to use two rearguards on the power play.

One reason is having an abundance of elite offensive defensemen. The Sharks already had Brent Burns, a former forward, running their power play when they acquired Karlsson from Ottawa in September 2018. The thought was the two would work magic together with Karlsson’s vision and playmaking perfectly complementing Burns’ bomb of a shot.

Success was rare and the experiment was quickly tapered. Burns was traded by the rebuilding Sharks to Carolina in the offseason.

“It’s tough to judge,” Karlsson said. “I think that it worked fine. I’m sure we would have sorted something out if he still would have been here.”

Another reason is to safeguard against opponents’ offence as they get back to full strength after a successful penalty kill. Elite first units — teams like the Oilers — often play around 90 seconds leaving just a little bit of attacking time for the second group.

Having two defensemen on it ensures teams like the Oilers are ready to defend when needed.

“Coming out of penalty kills, most teams play their top people,” Woodcroft said.

So, there is still some power-play time for defensemen who once got so much more of it. Just nowhere near as much. That means adapting and staying ready.

Nurse ran power plays in junior for the Ontario Hockey League’s Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and filled in seamlessly for the Oilers during the 2018-19 season when Klefbom sustained a broken hand. His offence mostly comes at five-on-five.

“To play in the NHL nowadays, you have to be able to play both sides,” Nurse said. “You can’t just be specifically defensive and not be able to move a puck. That runs hand in hand with being able to run a power play.”

Nurse said he tries to stay sharp by getting in getting reps at the end of practices and watching extra video — both of the Oilers’ and other top offensive defensemen — in case his number is called for first-unit power-play duty.

Spurgeon has seen his power-play time cut in half this season amid the Wild now having other options like Calen Addison and then acquiring John Klingberg in March.

“It used to be one offensive guy (per team) where now everyone has to be able to skate and make those breakout passes,” Spurgeon said. “The game’s evolved a lot.

“You want to be the best in every situation that you’re in.”

Likewise, Dumba seldom gets time on the man advantage — just 8:52 this season — when that was part repertoire before.

“If you’re not evolving as a player, there potentially isn’t a place for you in this game,” Dumba said. “I know what my game is. But if I’m put on the power play, I think can contribute. I think my skill allows me to do that.”

Barrie is now on his fourth NHL team after the February trade to Nashville. The Oilers got the more defensively sound Mattias Ekholm and had to ship out Barrie for cap reasons.

However, the younger and cheaper Bouchard was waiting in the wings to take over Barrie’s job on the top power-play unit.

“I felt, since I got to Edmonton, it was a natural fit,” Barrie, who led all NHL blueliners in scoring in 2021, said. “Things ran fairly smoothly, so I was never too concerned (about a trade). I like Bouch a lot as a person. I could see he was working hard and he’s a great player.”

The Oilers’ power play hasn’t missed a beat without Barrie, but that doesn’t mean he was an insignificant part of the team’s success.

“He was undervalued for the types of reads he made here,” Gulutzan said. “That was a key to that power play.”

Outside of power-play responsibilities, Gulutzan said players like Barrie are maybe more important than ever at even strength because they can make passes to teammates in flight. Those defensemen get a leg up when it comes to finding work over their peers.

At the same time, however, Gulutzan said those defensemen ideally would be more of a “blend” of offensive skill and defensive prowess, naming Ekholm as an example.

“You’re not going to have two or three small puck-moving defensemen on an NHL team,” Gulutzan said. “You only need one.”

There’s no doubt, though, thanks to the evolution of power plays, the composition of defense corps has altered.

“A lot of teams have eight really good offensive (forwards),” Boudreau said. “You’ve got to find a place for all of them on the power play.”

Barrie is 31, so he’s in the back half of his career. He hopes he continues to get power-play time wherever his career takes him but knows he’ll have to prove his worth in other areas of the game to stay employed long-term.

“You’re always learning and trying to improve your game,” Barrie said. “Especially as an offensive guy, there always seems to be a knock about the defensive side of things. You’re always trying to round that out. The more you can put those rumours to bed, the better it is for your longevity and the way that GMs and coaches see you as a player.”

Barrie is still an excellent offensive blueliner. He has another year on his contract. It’s not like he’s in jeopardy of losing his place in the NHL anytime soon.

However, as he’s already seen, he just might end up being expendable from a certain team depending on how the rest of the defense shakes out.

“There is only really a need for one defenseman out there, to be honest.”

(Photo of Tyson Barrie: Derek Cain / Getty Images)