Craig Smith, the 13th forward?! A measured response
Stars fans are crazy. Or does Dallas simply have crazy depth?
I have a lot of thoughts about Matt Duchene, and what Dallas is really getting. Granted, I always have a lot of thoughts, but still. I think fans are both overstating — “whoa, Dallas got way better!” — and understating — Duchene’s connection to DeBoer’s system — what exactly he brings. But that’s another story for another time.
Today, we’re interested in the fourth line because for some reason — and I don’t write that with subsonic snark or anything — fans think the fourth line is kind of a big deal.
The top nine is fully accounted for. However, the fourth line is getting kind of crowded. In fact, it’s so crowded that either the new player Jim Nill just brought in (Sam Steel) will be cut, or the former 18th overall pick Ty Dellandrea, who had a pretty darn good rookie season. That was my first thought at least.
So I made a poll on Twitter, essentially asking who would be your healthy scratch forward in a perfect world, and this was the result.
I thought this was an interesting response. It tells me two things:
Stars fans don’t watch non-Stars hockey.
But they might be right anyway.
Sidebar: I’m kidding about the first part, but I also don’t judge. If you don’t watch a lot of non-Stars hockey it just means you have shit to do. Unlike me.
Of course, it was also a thought exercise. Hence why Radek Faksa nearly won. Smith is an interesting pick though. The right winger has spent most of his career in Nashville, building his reputation as a consistent, all-angles shooter. When he went to Boston, he was on the downside of his career, but still managed to pot 34 goals in 170 games. His Bruins tenure ended when they traded him to Washington as part of the package deal that sent Dimitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway the other way.
Smith isn’t a specialist. He doesn’t play on the PK, and he’s not much of PP expert either. He is, however, a shooter; and not much else, surprisingly. It’s an odd bit of business when you think about it. “Nill not signing a depth forward who is only useful on the PK??” Then again I don’t think Nill appreciated seeing Seattle and Vegas’ fourth lines score goals on them, so maybe that’s part of the inspiration too.
Granted, most one-dimensional shooters typically end up with some variation of getting phased out (James Van Reimsdyk and James Neal) or figured out (Ryan Dzingel and Andreas Anthanasiou). Non-elite, one-dimensional players typically have a shelf life.
But not Smith. The reasons for that illustrate an important point: being a one-dimensional player doesn’t prevent players from having a multi-dimensional process.
Even now, he continues to generate offense. Again, offense: not just goals, but the stuff of goals.
In fact, at Puck Salvos (I don’t know why I’m referring to this place like I’m opening my own Los Pollos Hermanos, but whatever - I’m excited about the future of this place damnit), we’re throwing that expression away. It has too much of a negative connotation. Why is Gurianov considered a one-dimensional forward, but not Faksa? So I propose the expression single-layered. Not sure it’ll stick, but let’s roll with it.
Smith might be a single-layered forward, but within that layer are a lot of ingredients.
Yes, he is “just” a shooter, but look at how he generates them: he chambers them quickly (his release has always been good, and I think in his prime he could have easily broken 30 on more than one occasion outside of Trotz’ system and Nashville’s depth), he can find them off a quick pass (he knows how to get to quiet ice, which makes this signing extra interesting as I think he could be a mentor to Wyatt Johnston in some ways; a player that already excels at this), he’s comfortable working off the rush, and along the exterior or interior of the ice.
What I’m really getting at here is that when it comes to players, it’s better to think of them not in archetypes — shooters versus playmakers versus dependents, etc — but in terms of different types of processes. For as superficial a player as Smith is, I think we can safely say that his process is rather layered. In his head he may break the game down only one way (that is, by what he can generate) but on the ice that approach manifests itself in multiple ways.
So I ask again: Smith, the health scratch forward?
Well, maybe. The thing about single-layer players is that coaches have a single-layer tolerance. I wouldn’t at all be surprised to see Smith become the Colin Miller of the forward group; a player who does a lot of little things well, but isn’t loud (or big) enough with them to offset the mistakes.
Plus, Steel-Faksa-Dellandrea sounds like a damn good fourth line.
I think this is where Smith being the healthy scratch forward — just to emphasize: I don’t see this happening, nor will it, nor should it — will say a lot. And I think that kind of depth is what will make the difference when it gets down to the marrow in April, May, and June. Regardless, if Smith still has something left in the tank, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be a bottom six staple.
Quick announcement: I’ll have my first piece for paid subscribers up tomorrow. I’ve got some video analysis I’m working on (what makes Wyatt Johnston so good?) but paid subscribers will get a piece on Dallas’ depth chart. This is not my passive aggressive attempt to get you to pay. I’m still not super sure about all this. But hopefully seeing the difference in content gives you a good idea of what exactly the content is worth.
I like the single-layered player ideology. It's a good term, I might steal it sometimes. Good stuff.
Always love your work man. Do you see faksa getting traded or do they keep him for his “playoff ability”