Of Ice And Men: A complete beginner's guide to professional hockey (Part 2)

NHL rosters, explained.

This is Part II of our beginner’s guide, where we’ll focus on the players. Tomorrow (Part III) we’ll talk about their playground, and how it works: the ice. You can read Part 1 here.

Hockey is a cold sport. Because of that, hockey players tend to come from cold places. (Keep this in mind if you ever attend a hockey game, since the ice must be kept cold by a chilled liquid to keep the ice frozen.)

Look at any hockey roster, and you will find that the sport is very North American. The large bulk of each roster consists of mostly Canadian, and American, and those American players are typically found along the upper eastcoast. However, the minority demographic is still quite sizeable. Russia, Finland, Sweden, and Czechia foster the next biggest groups. And yes, there are fun outliers like Mexico.

We talked about the importance of chaos within the sport itself, and this is true of the draft itself. When NHL teams build their future, they start with the NHL Draft¹. Unlike the NFL, where every team can more or less pick from the same pool (high school and college), professional hockey has to pick from literally all over the world. Canada has what’s called the Canadian Hockey League, itself split into three, geographical districts for players aged 16-21, to make things a little easier. But there’s no formula. Not only do professional European leagues have their own farm systems, but sometimes young players will play alongside men in limited roles, making it hard to determine a player’s value simply by point production.

This makes drafting and developing essential to creating a quality roster. The NHL has the lowest cap of any its contemporaries, which further highlights the draft importance. Junior hockey follows the same demographics as professional hockey.

Map and data courtesy of Reddit.

The average age of an NHL player is 26, with their average height being 6’1, and average weight being 199lbs. Your typical player will have, on average, 11 years of experience.

Hockey rosters consist of 20 players. That number is divided between 18 skaters further distinguished between 12 forwards, and six defensemen. The remaining two are the goalies: one starter, and one backup. The skaters take mostly on-the-fly shifts lasting between 30 to 45 seconds on average that are in a constant, five-man rotation. It’s important for shifts to be short in hockey because of how fast it moves. Within those 40 seconds, players can move in bursts of up to 22 miles per hour. You’ll often see players who literally can’t move if they’ve been trapped on the ice for up to two minutes or more.

Forwards

Starting with the forwards, forwards are responsible for most of the scoring that occurs in hockey. Because of that, they get paid the most. Every team has four lines consisting of four centers, four forwards at left wing, and four players at right wing.

I would further divide these players into the following categories. Superstars: This kind of player needs no introduction. You’ll know them when you see them. Generalists: A skater with broad, offensive or defensive skills. And then there are Specialists: A skater with specific, offensive or defensive skills².

These lines operate in descending order. The top line gets the most minutes, followed by the second line, the third, and the fourth.

• Line 1: Because this line plays the most minutes, they’re usually the most dangerous. Think of Line 1 as a team’s primary attack. Dom had his 1970 Dodge Charger. Hockey teams have their top forward line.

  • These lines play between 18 and 22 minutes of time-on-ice (TOI), and average around 77 points.

• Line 2: Secondary line of attack. On a really good team, this line can be as dangerous as the top line. Strong scoring players will often be referred to as top six forwards.

  • These lines play between 16 and 18 minutes of time-on-ice, and average around 50 points.

• Line 3: This line used to be what was called a ‘checking line’—defensive specialists who could be matched up against an opposing team’s top offensive line. Nowadays, this line is typically another scoring threat. However, some teams still use checking lines.

  • These lines play between 13 and 16 minutes of time-on-ice, and average around 34 points.

• Line 4: This line plays anywhere between 10 to 12 minutes a night. Ideally, you get some quality shifts from them and that’s it. Lesser forwards are often referred to as bottom six forwards.

Keep in mind, this is merely a heuristic for understanding the way rosters are constructed. Not only do these lines change all the time, they change all the time even within the games. And obviously, the better the team, the more effectively they will function in descending order. Bad teams will have bad lines higher in the lineup.

Forwards can typically be identified by being the first to attack the puck, and the first to attack the opponent’s zone. Like so.

There will be exceptions, but when teams move up the ice like that, it’s almost always the forwards who are leading the charge.

Defensemen

Defensemen in the NHL are interesting because they’ve had a makeover in recent decades, going from big burly gatekeepers known more for big hits to (now) skilled players who jump into plays the way forwards do. Two defensemen will be on the ice on any given shift. Ideally, the left-handed defender will play on the left side, and a right-handed defender will play on the right side.

Like forwards, defenders can be a mix of superstars, generalists, and specialists. Because defenders technically cover less ice, they tend to play more minutes a game than the forwards. Like with the forward lines, each pair is arranged in descending order in terms of TOI and skill level. The best players at this position are often called top four defenders. Every defense pair is always furthest from the goalie when attacking, or closest to the goalie when defending. Here’s what a defense pairing should look like when facing pressure.

Goaltenders

And last but certainly not least are a team’s goalies. They exist to stop the puck. That’s it.

There’s a lot more to the goalie position, but goaltending is so often referred to as “voodoo” because the goalies themselves are seen as unpredictable. This is obviously not very useful for new fans, but hockey tends to be lacking when it comes to analysis. As you can see, each goalie has a large stick called the blocker, are heavily padded, and also have a glove hand.

The cap

This will be quick. One shorthand for figuring out who these players are is by looking at how much they cost. Thankfully, there are useful resources for keeping tabs: namely PuckPedia, and if you want something that’s more nerdy but just as easy to follow, David Johnson’s TheStanleyCap³. The annual average salary (how much each player makes per year) and term (how long their contracts last) tend to give you an idea of each player’s important. Any player signed long term is what you might call a core player. Anyone player signed short term can either be depth, or is likely a trade deadline piece⁴. You will also see players signed to what are called entry-level contracts. These are always three-year contracts for young, recently-drafted players. These contracts are technically four years as long as the signed player does not play a minimum of 10 NHL games (which initiates the entry-level deal).

Part III Preview

Tomorrow we’ll focus on how that big sheet of ice works. The quickest way to make sense of hockey while watching it is by understanding icings, and offsides. There’s a lot more to it than that, obviously, but they can be confusing for even veteran watchers.

1. I’ve written an NHL draft primer if you want to get into the weeds.

2. Nobody in hockey uses these terms, but I use them in my own personal scouting, and I think they’re easier to understand for new fans who aren’t used to words like shutdown defender, playmaker, puck movers, etc.

3. Johnson used to run his own stats site, and worked for the NHL for a period.

4. The trade deadline ends March 7 at 3pm, every year.