Maybe I missed something, but is Robertson properly characterized as a playdriver? How do you define it? Prowess in transition?
My uninformed feeling has been that he is more of a complementary piece. A highly skilled and productive one, no doubt, but still complementary nonetheless.
Good question. Putting Robertson on the ice means your team is most likely to have the puck and shoot it significantly more than the other team, at least by what we can measure. To me, that suggests play-driver more than any one thing.
I think many times people assume that primary puck carrier = playdriver or that center is a play-driver and a wing is complementary. I think Robertson is among the new class of "low-pace" wings who drive play in a very interesting way and subvert the wing/center as driver dynamic. Think Mark Stone for Chandler Stephenson or Matthew Tkachuk for Sam Bennett. Roope Hintz is difficult, primarily because he's also great and both have skillsets that make their linemates better.
What Robertson does well is make the play more likely to happen in the middle of the ice with intelligent routes, vision and one-touch playmaking. He's a king of drawing pressure and attention and beating it. All of these combine to make a center's job really easy, especially one like Roope Hintz who is really fast and effective when put into space. It's nuanced. Is it Robertson's advantage creating passing that is complementary to Hintz's middle speed or vice versa?
At the end, my more streamlined definition of play driving comes from three facets: Get the puck out, get the puck in, keep it there.
Robertson is good defensively, contributes not to getting the puck out with his legs but in making it easier for his teammates to get the puck out and does the same for getting it in. I can't say that he's necessarily excellent in recovering pucks, but he contributes to "keeping it there" with elite passing and spatial awareness in possession which minimizes turnovers.
If you contribute to those phases well, you drive play. Jack Hughes can carry the puck goal line to goal line and dance around. Kirill Marchenko can chip pucks out to space, follow the puck and strip it from someone as they're trying to exit. Different levels, different skills, I'd call both play drivers.
Incredible work dude.
Maybe I missed something, but is Robertson properly characterized as a playdriver? How do you define it? Prowess in transition?
My uninformed feeling has been that he is more of a complementary piece. A highly skilled and productive one, no doubt, but still complementary nonetheless.
Good question. Putting Robertson on the ice means your team is most likely to have the puck and shoot it significantly more than the other team, at least by what we can measure. To me, that suggests play-driver more than any one thing.
I think many times people assume that primary puck carrier = playdriver or that center is a play-driver and a wing is complementary. I think Robertson is among the new class of "low-pace" wings who drive play in a very interesting way and subvert the wing/center as driver dynamic. Think Mark Stone for Chandler Stephenson or Matthew Tkachuk for Sam Bennett. Roope Hintz is difficult, primarily because he's also great and both have skillsets that make their linemates better.
What Robertson does well is make the play more likely to happen in the middle of the ice with intelligent routes, vision and one-touch playmaking. He's a king of drawing pressure and attention and beating it. All of these combine to make a center's job really easy, especially one like Roope Hintz who is really fast and effective when put into space. It's nuanced. Is it Robertson's advantage creating passing that is complementary to Hintz's middle speed or vice versa?
At the end, my more streamlined definition of play driving comes from three facets: Get the puck out, get the puck in, keep it there.
Robertson is good defensively, contributes not to getting the puck out with his legs but in making it easier for his teammates to get the puck out and does the same for getting it in. I can't say that he's necessarily excellent in recovering pucks, but he contributes to "keeping it there" with elite passing and spatial awareness in possession which minimizes turnovers.
If you contribute to those phases well, you drive play. Jack Hughes can carry the puck goal line to goal line and dance around. Kirill Marchenko can chip pucks out to space, follow the puck and strip it from someone as they're trying to exit. Different levels, different skills, I'd call both play drivers.