The Hockey PDOcast - How Quinton Byfield Is Now Leveraging His Skills to Become an Impact Player

Episode Date: November 14, 2023

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Darryl Belfry to break down Quinton Byfield's game, the leap he's made this season, and how he's been able to become a real impact player for the Kings.If you'd like to participate the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here:https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84This podcast is produced by Dominic SramatyThe views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate. If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Since 2015, it's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey PEDEOCast. My name's Dmitra Filippovich and joining me for what's becoming a weekly staple here on the show. It's my good buddy, Gerald Belford. Daryl, what's going on in? Excited to be back. Another guy that is a really interesting player to discuss. So we'll see how we do.

Yes. This is becoming a weekly project for us. We pick a player that's caught our eye. We diligently sift through their tape this season, and then we get on here for 50 minutes. We break down what we're seeing, why it's working, what we like, all that good stuff. Our muse this week is Quentin Byfield. And I think it's safe to say it's only 14 games to start the season. Certainly a long road ahead.

But it feels like he's finally arrived. He's living up to everything we expected from him when he was a top prospect and went second overall to 2020 draft. and it's been beautiful to see. Yeah, the interesting part about this guy is I think he's a study of skating. Like when you really watch what he does, and like particularly this year, a lot of what he's doing so well is rooted in outstanding use of his skating. And I think that that hasn't necessarily always been the case for him because he's always had that high athletic agility, stop on a dime, turn on a dime, great hands, all that sort of stuff. He's he's had that.

He hasn't looked the prettiest through the neutral zone in certainly from his pre-draft. time and then into his first couple of years. And I was always curious of whether pace through the neutral zone was going to be something that would hold him back. And you watch him now. And it's quite impressive what he's doing. Well, you talked about this in your book. I forget if you call the talent gap or a development gap, but that's what I come to with him,

right, where I think he was just so much more physically gifted than pretty much anyone he would share the ice with in the OHL that you can get away with a lack of, I guess, detail or nuance, right? Like sometimes just by brute force or power or speed, you can get to wherever you want to go. And then you come to NHL and he's still one of the best athletes on the ice, no doubt about it. But all of a sudden, it becomes tougher to get away with it, right? You still might get the occasional break. But for the most part, you really have to mix in certain things to get to your spots. And I imagine for a young player, that probably is, it takes the biggest adjustment early in your career, right?

Kind of like we almost have to run into that brick wall and realize that what you used to do so effortlessly before isn't really going to fly at this level. And then it's up to you to make the necessary changes. And some guys do. Some guys don't. And some guys just take longer than others. Yeah, that's, we call that the achievement gap. So it's a player who's, you know, ahead because they are either, you know, physically much more mature or that they are, you know, generally just a better player at that particular stage,

have more assets than their peers. And for sure, like when you saw him play junior, there were things that he could do that you just didn't know would translate very easily. And it's been a bit of a process. for him to get to where he is. I mean, one of the things too that I forget when I watch him is how big he actually is. He is a big, big guy and he moves like a cat

in small space. And you're right. I mean, it does take guys who have that, you know, those physical gifts. If those don't translate right away, then there is an action. adaptation and figuring it out. What I found really interesting with him is that it's really come through his feet. Like normally you would go through like your best, you know, your best

asset. So it take his like his athleticism combined with his size and say, okay, like that's probably where where the adaptation's going to come from. And there has been some adaptations he's made that have been pretty significant, I think, in that area, just the way he uses his body. But it's it's his feet. And especially like he's always had that multidirectional, you know, quickness and agility. But this, what he's doing now is pretty special stuff. And where I really get excited about him is when he is agile and in the small space,

he's able to travel a greater distance than the player who's checking him. and then that leads him also but not travel a greater distance and then be caught off balance so sometimes when guys are trying to move laterally very quickly they tend to reach with their limbs and then that makes the compromiser position to be able to move make the next play which is counterproductive or counterintuitive to what real agility is that's not the case with him he's able to make a quick movement uh in a a direction and he's able to extend that movement without extending his limb and then be able to make the next movement that really creates the separation and off you go. And it's, I think that when I really watch him there and then when you take a look at the way that, that LA is plays, there's so much on the wall, like they're dominating on the wall. And he, his one of the adaptations, not to belabor this answer, because I have so much to say on this. But his ability with the soft shoulders and soft hips on the wall has really caught my eye.

Like what I mean by that is when he takes a contact, he just kind of rolls with it. And he's able to use that skating. Like when he's rolling with it, he's on a little bit of a turn. He takes the turn, turns it into a pivot or a crossover. And now all of a sudden he's out of there. That type of stuff is that's why I mean I think he's a real study in skating. He certainly is. Well, let's get into that.

I was initially going to think that we were going to start with some of the open ice stuff instead. But while we're on this, let's talk a little bit about that because I think a lot has been made of this sort of roadblock in his way from a development or positional perspective moving forward on this team, right? Because they have Anzegopatar. They have Pierluke Dubois now after the trade this past summer. they have Philip Deno and all those guys are locked up for the next couple of years. I believe Kopitar's extension expires after the 2026 season. So that's a ways away. And a lot's been made of,

all right, well, we know that centers are more valuable. This guy was a center as a prospect. You'd like to see that because he'd provide more positional value there. And I think for especially players this size, like I think of like we saw what happened with Tage Thompson, for example.

And I think we've spoken about him in the past where he was kind of, he would get stuck on the wall as a winger. just because of how like lanky he was and how massive he is as a person, the proximity of people to him up against the wall, they'd be able to kind of like get out the inside position, leverage him, and all of a sudden take away some of his strengths. And then Don Granato comes in,

moves him to the middle of the ice. And his game takes off largely because all of a sudden now they're featuring his most impressive skills, right? It's how fluidly he moves at that size and then his hands and the ability to use that reach and put the puck wherever he wants it. he's certainly a talented player and has puck skills and we've seen him dangle and do that toe drag and stuff but with byfield it's interesting you bring that up because just watching him it feels like he's becoming so much more comfortable in those positions where he doesn't really get

bothered by someone smaller than him pressing up on him up against the wall he's he's already exhibited really nice technique and elusiveness in making a play to get away from there and that's a testament to his skill and also the development i think he's made because i don't know if i necessarily would have said that previously about it. Yeah, like for me, when you really watch him, like in the wall stuff, like what I see is he has an ability now, like I said, the soft shoulder, soft hips of being able to turn and escape pressure and put people on his back and all that stuff.

That's one thing. He's not turning a board battle into another board battle. Like he's turning a board battle into a one board battle that he makes a playoff of. and he leaves people on the wall. One of the things that I think that I think he does extremely well is he uses a seal. So he's a big guy, right? And so when you play against smaller players, what they want to do is they want to get into the space between your hips and your hands.

So they're trying to attack that space, get in between that space. So as a larger player, that space is a lot bigger. It's a bigger area. And so if you do not have an understanding of how to protect that space, then smaller players can control you because they're quicker and they can just get into that space. They push you against the wall where now you lose a lot of leverage because you get stood up. And then that space becomes a real issue. This guy's not allowing people to get into that space because he keeps the puck close.

to his body and he's able to protect that space and as people are coming and threatening the space, he's also got space between him and the wall so he can turn. So in other words, like he has some escapeability there to go out the other way, which is a real, that's a really tough skill when you're tight to the boards. It's high traffic. You're a big 6'4 foot 4 guy. like that is a very hard skill and he is doing it regularly and then he not only is he able to turn and protect that space but then he's able to get off the wall and do some interesting things because he has excellent hands and where his hands really show for me is his ability close to his feet with the puck close to his feet and then getting off the wall or bringing the puck close to his feet to

get out into the next into the next space and I think that that's a you know it doesn't matter who you are you need to be able to understand how to play on the wall but a player this big uh that is an and and as athletic as he is uh to learn how to protect the space is and be able to create opportunity to the other side of the of his body to me is uh is a massive massive development and i think speaks to why he's so good and playing an in how much time they are on the walls and how much they rely on good wall play to generate, especially when they get the offensive zone. I mean, it's really now it looks like a perfect fit.

Like would this work in a Carolina situation where they're constantly just chase down, put the puck into space, chase it into space, break you down that way, like by winning constantly winning races and stuff, this is a much more half court type of offense that they like. I mean, of course, they're good in transition. But the way they love to be on the wall, they're very comfortable in the wall.

And they almost like grind you. The way this guy is performing right now and is how comfortable he is in the space, that five feet from the wall is really, it makes you feel like this is a perfect match for him. It is. And that's why I said that like, regardless of what position he's playing, I think these are very valuable reps for him. Because even if he does move to the middle one day, and I'm sure he will at some point in his career, these are like applicable skills that he will still be able to tap into. Right.

Sometimes if you don't really get this experience and then all of a sudden you're putting those positions later on in your career, it's kind of foreign ground for you. Right. And it becomes difficult to make that adjustment. He's already shown that he's capable of doing that. And you're right, just fluidity of it. And I noticed that technique as well where the agility to kind of quickly with one step, get around the defender, get the inside position, and then use that frame to seal and then attack the middle. And while keeping his head up and then tapping into some of those playmaking skills, he's shown as a distributor where he's keeping his head up, he's scanning, he's looking for options, he's making a play. Like here hits the point man, results in a goal eventually.

Like that's really high level stuff, especially for a young player, right? because these aren't things that I imagine he ever really had to even worry about previously, right? Like this wasn't part of part of his resume. And all of a sudden now doing it, he's just, he's passing all those tests. Yeah, I think the other thing he's become really good at that I think really jumps off the page for me also is you mentioned his passing, which I think is a byproduct of him getting really good body position. and then having a great understanding with his footwork of being able to create those little separations. So he gets separation. He has just a little bit more time than he's able to make some really good plays.

But what really dovetails with that is he's excellent in rotation. So he can go from the back wall and he leaves this guy on the wall. He makes a play. Next thing you know, he's at the net or he's in the high F3 and he's dangerous from those two areas as well. So not only is he making plays on the wall, but he then finds himself into these rotations where he gets into really good offensive positions. Like his F3 play is actually,

he can really shoot the puck from there. He can shoot it off the pass. He can shoot it off the pivot. He can come downhill into it. You know, he can rotate and shoot off the catch. He has an excellent ability to use like what we call like a scope tip. So he starts at the net and he starts going out towards the point man and that guy shoots it.

He can tip those pucks. So he has a real array of really interesting skills as an F3 and he finds himself in those positions. And then he also can get, he can get to the net. He's a big, big body with a very agile frame and can move. And he rotates and finds himself there.

And then he's got a heavy stick. So he's got all these assets just make him so dangerous. because he's not just like stuck on the wall making plays. He goes from the wall and he rotates into better positions. And I think that's partly what really makes the LA team so dangerous. Because I always felt like that was something that held Kopitar back from being like a hundred point guy was rotation. He would be on the wall. He'd be so good on the wall, so good around the net.

And, you know, he'd have his moments through the neutral zone or off. the rush where he where he was good and some power play stuff but it just wasn't enough like just didn't have the fluidity of the use of the whole zone and getting the multiple puck touches that are required to really generate a lot of points in this league um and this is this is what byfield is showing he has that rotational skill and instincts and the puck starts following him around so a lot of the clips that we have he's getting the puck two three times and that's always a big sign for me that this guy could really pop offensively and find his way into into some really interesting numbers. And, you know, and I'm all here for it. I think, I think

players like this are are fascinating and really important for us to truly start to understand. Well, he's got 13 points and 14 games so far. 11 of them are assists. He's got a 6th game point streak and a bunch of them are secondary assists and I think we typically value primary assists more just because we can more directly trace it to you know having a hands-on impact on creating the goal but at the same time I do think this is kind of like a feature or not a bug for him because a lot of the stuff you mentioned where his ability with the multiple puck touches the rotation the ability to kind of extend plays I think that's going to be a recurring theme for him he's certainly going to pile up the primary assist as well but that's kind of just

part of how he plays and how they're playing as a team. And then he's coming into that. And even though it is a secondary assist, he's playing a very instrumental role in helping create that goal when it eventually happens. So I really like what I've seen from him in that regard as a playmaker. I mean, the vision and him keeping his head up and looking for guys has been phenomenal.

And then you pair him playing him with Kopitar smarts and helping him get off the wall there. And then Kempe, who's arguably the most willing shooter in the end. HL that we have going right now. He's a guy who's never seen a shot opportunity. He doesn't like. I believe he's like fifth or sixth in shot rate this season and has been a recurring theme from the past couple years. That's a really nice combination for them. And so I'm not surprised to see that those three guys have the type of five-on-five numbers they do together. Yeah, no. I mean, Kempai is a whole other discussion. I can't even start with the Kempai discussion. He's one of my favorite players in the league. I love that guy. So I'm not going to

touch that. What I will say, about the secondary assist is not like I know that that has some some analytic analytical predictable value in terms of guys and I don't want to discount that but I think as part of a development process with a player which is basically what we're talking about here having a player touch the puck multiple times and putting himself I call it putting yourself in the points so what what happens is like so a puck goes in the offensive zone, it's a loose puck. Usually that's your first touch. You go get that touch. You make a play. Whatever the play is, you then move to rotate to another position,

you touch the puck again. So when those two puck touches happen in the space between them, they've probably touched one or two other hands before it got back to you, right? And then now you'd make another play and then it touches one or two hands again. So you've touched the puck three times now, there's probably been seven or eight puck touches total for your for your group but you're in the points all the time you see what i mean like throughout that in throughout all three of those puck touches if any time that puck were to go in the net you're in the points now it so happens that he ends up as a you know as a as a second assist i don't discount that i think that that's part of the development process of getting the puck multiple times it also speaks to

guys who are, I think, really good on the wall will have themselves situations in which they get a lot of second points, particularly from point shot rebound situations. So if you could envision shots taken, this guy wins a race to go get the puck on the back wall, he problems solves the pressure, he goes low to high to the point, point guy shoots it, not high and probable that that original shot is going in,

probably going to be tip or rebound type play. That's a secondary assist. This guy has done a lot of work inside of that through the puck recovery process, etc. So, and L.A. is a team that's low to high. They do like their point shots or historically have liked their point shots and have defensemen who do, who are proficient there. I like that where Byfield is going. I think he wins a lot of puck's.

And to your point, he's got guys that he can make plays to is also he gets first touch in loose puck situation. So he's not, you don't see him like running people over to get the puck. He wins the race to get to the puck. And he gets a first touch, which is a whole different thing. And in today's day and age, there's a lot of value in players who can do that and how much offense that they can generate. So I think it's interesting, and I think that the more he continues to do this, he'll find more and more ways to generate offense from these types of positions that he finds himself in. Certainly.

And like I said, I think of them as a play extender or a connector. And I don't think it's surprising that with him on the ice and part of it is because, I mean, the Kings as a team are so good at 5-1-5, but Copatar and Kempai in particular are also awesome players. But you look, and when by fields on the ice this season, the Kings are controlling 61% of the shot attempts, 60% of the expected goals, 60% of the high danger chances. They're outscoring teams 11 to 6. Like, that's high level stuff at 5 on 5. And I don't think that's a coincidence. It's a lot of these little things we're talking about kind of adding up and accumulating over time.

Now, we talked a little bit about the wall play, right, and how the Kings are beast along the boards and how that's been a point of emphasis for them. I do want to talk about the transition game and the rush element as well because I don't think that should be overlooked here either. And the Kings as a team right now are second in the league in 5-15 scoring. They generate the third most expected goals for, but they also give up the third fewest expected goals against. And we'll talk more about the defensive end of things here in a second and how that relates to Byfield. But I think the big reason for that beyond the wordplay is just their command of the rush game and how seamless the transition is for them. We think a lot about them off the puck, especially when they get the lead. They load up that one three one in the neutral zone, and it's just absolutely brutal trying to work your way through it.

But offensively, we've seen them take their game as a team to another level in terms of moving downhill like that. As soon as they get it, they're off and running, and it's a full team attack. And as we're seeing on the clips here, I think Byfield's ability to leverage some of that speed and kind of open up the ice for them has been really valuable. and now all of a sudden you've got him and Kempe just flying down the ice. That could be quite a handful for other teams to try to contend with. Yeah, not only that, but they also show an ability to go east-west while they are sprinting up the ice, east-west with the puck while they're sprinting up the ice. One of the things with Kempe is he is one of the best shooters off the rush, off the pass,

which is a great skill to have so long as you have people who, who can make that play, right? Like you still need a guy who can make a play. This is where Byfield, for me, has really, and really kind of feeds this, the whole situation there because he does have that ability to make those, those East West plays.

He can make plays through people. You see him make good decisions on when the play is not there as well. And he can chip it, like use a self-chip and win that race for the puck. And then they start grinding you in the offensive zone. one of the areas that I think is a next step for Byfield in his own personal development is more of the command through the middle of the ice and his own personal use of the middle of the ice. When I say middle of the ice, I don't mean necessarily him skating through the middle of the ice. I mean getting from him off the wall into the dot line and then being able to go more like dot to dot-to-dot type plays or being one step, one cross. over away from the middle of the ice if he so chooses.

There are times where he gets, he's passing ability is good. He will use the middle of the ice by passing it there, but he doesn't necessarily have it as a habit yet of just coming off the wall and getting the dot line and getting the middle of the ice, which I think when he's at his best off the rush and the clips that you've chosen, you can see there's a lot of play through the middle of the ice where he's really making things happen. I think that that's a natural next step with his development. What I do find interesting is when he was, you know, coming in through his draft year,

I didn't love him through the neutral zone in terms of his skating. And, you know, he looked gangly and there were times where I just didn't feel like there was an efficiency there. I thought there was a lot of wasted movement. must have wasted energy. And I was curious to see if he was going to get it sorted out. And the natural adaptation for a player like that is to cross your feet a lot more. And so you can see through the neutral zone, he does cross his feet a lot. But then when he doesn't cross his feet and he goes into a stride, it is an angry stride.

It's got a lot of power to it. And he follows it up with a lot of cross. overs thereafter. So I'm really impressed with how he's getting through the neutral zone. And I think that the more, he gets more and more confidence of getting and sprinting through the neutral zone, he is going to find that he'll be able to get off the wall more often from the D zone and get out. But when he is in the middle of the ice, he's just a huge, huge problem. And that, I think, is a big part of the next step in his development in being able to contribute offensively off the rush.

Well, this clip against the penguins that got teed up here where he comes back, makes a defensive play, and then immediately they flip from defense to offense, and he attacks the middle of the ice here as you're talking about. I mean, this is the type of intoxicating stuff where you watch it and you envision what he's capable of. And there's just so few players in the league that could do something like that, right? And so it's very exciting to think about. And as a team, they're fourth in the league in rush shots.

They're averaging about 16 of them per game. And it's interesting you mentioned that that east-west element and kind of how that's made them more efficient. I think that was such a point of emphasis for them because they've been good off the rush for a couple years now. But I always thought their rush attack was very either predictable or kind of like cookie cutter because it would just be very north, north-south centric, right? Like they would just go downhill and the first person into the zone as soon as they could, they would just shoot. And while that's still more dangerous than most other shots you're going to get over the course of a game, if everyone knows where it's coming from and the opposing goalie can basically the entire way

kind of get his position intact, eye you down, and then all of a sudden make that save, you kind of neutralized a lot of why we like the rush attack, right? And then all of a sudden you start incorporating more of the east-west, less predictable, more dangerous. I think that's very exciting, and that's, I think, a big part of why their 5-15 offense as a team has taken the jump it has. Last year, they were, like, middle of the pack

in both goals and expected goals at 5-15, and this year their top three in both. And that was such a, you know, when they ran into Edmonton the past couple years and they could kind of see the talent gap between them and the Oilers and how in a postseason series, that really can ultimately be the deciding factor. I think that really preoccupied

what they were trying to accomplish in terms of taking this next step as a team and becoming, from going from a good regular season team that wins a lot of games to all of a sudden becoming a true contender. And if this can keep up in terms of that 5-1-5 offense and how they're creating these looks,

then I think they're there. That was kind of a final step for me in terms of what I needed to see before putting them in that elite contender status. Yeah, and like you bring up a really good point and that is they develop a team team development for rush offense, you know, largely it starts with their F1, F2. So first guy with the puck, he usually has the puck outside the dots.

And now you got to make sure that he makes good decisions on entry. So don't turn it over. Don't try to do anything too crazy. Get it in deep. Shoot it. You know, maybe use F2 who can maybe try to present on the heels of the defender, try to isolate the first defender that you see F1, F2, go after one of those 2D and try to work together. But you're still only using the front post to the wall, right?

So from a goalie perspective and the stress you're putting on the goalie, it's not as significant. Now you develop that. Okay. So now you got F2. He knows he's got to get to the net. He's sprinting. He's an option. He gets the puck every so often.

Now you're like, okay, if he can generate. that much speed and be a threat to get in behind, he's now building the space that you need to be able to go east-west. The reason why teams struggle with rush offense initially is because their F-2 is no good. And he compresses the space at the line. So now you get a really creative forward with the puck crosses the line. He has no space because F-2 doesn't get deep enough. So now he tries to force a puck east-west with the two.

D standing up at the line, of course they intercept it and the plays go on the other way. And then now you're like, wait a minute, you got to be more responsible with the puck. You got to make better decisions. You can't win that way. And really, when you trace it down, yeah, the puck carrier's got to make a better choice. But really, it's the F2. And what I think that L.A. is done is they were so north for so long, right? And that's what North is.

It's really F1 and F2 and limit the cross ice passes. But if you really want to score off the rush, you have to go east-west. It's got to be a dot-to-dot type of thing because, or at least you need that threat. And that's the development of all. And then after that, you're like, okay, well, maybe we can get numbers on the rush. We can maybe jump a D. And so now you'll see like some of your clips, like you'll see the F-1, F2 takes off through the zone. He pushes them back.

F-1, he's got lots of time now. So he pulls up. and now he's hitting the D dot to dot. That's not the LA Kings. They never did that. That wasn't really their game. They were always just really straight line. If they didn't like what they thought,

they just put it in behind you and go forecheck. This is a whole different animal now because they are able to get a better F2 that's able to put more pressure on the defender and really create the space to go east-west. Because the dot-to-dot play is an, has to be insulated and created by the speed and the positioning of F1 or F2 getting to the net. That's what's critical.

And I think that's what we're seeing here with L.A. Is that's why these layers are good. It's because they establish that first. Where other teams, the creative guys get going, they don't establish the F2. And so they keep turning pucks over at the blue line. So they're like, okay, don't do that. Let's get it in deep. So now you take the puck out of those skill players' hands.

So you're really working backwards now when these guys, I think, have done it right in their approach to like get the F1, F2 game down. And then we can open it up a little bit more. That's what you're seeing. And they remarkably do it without really cheating. Like they do it the right way, right? Because I think you could get out in transition. But if all of a sudden you're just coming, if other teams come. back if you don't score and getting the same look back, it's kind of, you know, diminishing

returns because it's like, all right, what did you ultimately accomplish? Unless you have just truly high level shooters and you're going to expect to bury more of your opportunities than your opponent will. But for the most part, you want to at least see some sort of gap there in terms of how much you're creating first giving up and making sure they're doing it the right way. And they do that. I mean, when that line is out there with Bifield, Kopitara and Kempai, so far at 515, they've generated 51 rush shots. They've only given up 25 of them themselves, right? Like that is a massive gap between what they're creating and what they're giving up the other way. And so I wanted to tie that now into the defensive element as well because I've been really impressed with Byfield's work there just purely in terms of how they've just let him free as a disruptor.

Right. Like using some of that speed advantage that he's shown to hound opposing defenders to attack them, try to cause disruptions, cause turnovers. And just you can almost see at times you mentioned how like how big. and fast he is in that combination, a guy who's listed at 6, 4, 6, 5, or whatever he is, really shouldn't be able to move as fast as he does, right? And I think you can see defenders get almost kind of thrown off or spooked because they think they have time. And then all of a sudden, he's just bearing down on them. And so it completely distorts their vision, distorts any options they have. They wind up turning it over. And that feeds the King's attack as well. And so

it hasn't just been all the fun stuff we think about in terms of the rush offense and creativity. It's been off the fuck as well and what he's been creating with his legs in that regard and doing so in a very modern way, right? He's 6-5, but he's not just going and throwing bone-crunching hits. A lot of it is getting there and then using the agility and the skill with the stick to cause disruptions and cause turnover as opposed to just purely taking the body. Yeah, he again, to me it comes down to he is a study in skating because he's a big body, like him you would expect that his number one way to create turnovers would be just to run people over and be very physical and when you watch him that it's just not what he does he wins racist

to puck he takes good lines he wins good body position he knocks you off the line to get the puck he has an excellent stick um he he can read what to do what what you want to do but it also has good feet to be agile. He could create false information on one side of your body. And then he has the quickness and agility to be able to jump to the other side with a really good stick to get the takeaway. So he does a lot of that. The other piece with their offense that leads them to be very good defensively, Copatar is near impossible to take a puck from in the offensive zone. Byfield has become extremely good in in the on in wall play. In, in, in, in the, on, in offensive zone play.

You could argue that the guy who would be the least responsible in, in with the puck, in the offensive zone would be Kempe because of his propensity to shoot from anywhere. And off any pass is a good, any pass is a good pass. He's like one of those guys always open. And even when he's not open, he's open. He's that guy. And so he's the only one that's like, you're going to take those shots and he could, he could put you in some spot.

that way, but Byfield's great ability, again, to rotate his position from the wall into the middle of the ice, particularly the F3 spot. And then his tracking ability is, I think, underrated. He gets a lot of track takeaways, at least a lot of pressure. He puts a lot of pressure on you. So in the offensive zone, they don't really do a lot that leads you to offense because they're very hard to get a puck from. Like you really got to earn it. it is probably going to be a miss shot that you're going to get the puck from them because they're not going to give it to you. Copatars an excellent small area passer by field has really shown that ability to make really good plays and passes in the offensive zone. So these guys are a real problem.

They're hard to manage because they don't really give you like the easy plays to transition out of your zone with. like an errant pass into the slot that you can just that turns into your breakout the d grabs it boom they outlet it and they're gone they're in transition they just don't do a lot of that stuff or they or they lose their f3 and he gets down by the goal line and now you know a simple play next thing you know they're a bad shot choice and now the other team is coming out with numbers like they're not doing that because they're very strong in puck protection situation situations their F3 is there and this this by field I mean he can really he can hunt you down he can hunt you down he can't he's been a couple times this year where and we've seen some of the clips

here where he's gotten into a foot race where the puck gets cleared out of their own zone and one defender on the other teams going back to try and retrieve it and they're probably thinking as poor brayden McNabbier found out they're probably thinking all right this will be a pretty easy play I'll go back I'll probably be able to touch it to my to my partner and we'll be going back the other way maybe these guys are even going to change and instead they turn around they shoulder check and by field's just come in at 100 miles an hour just just just just bearing down on them and totally changing whatever their previous plans may have been and so I think he's been almost been able to completely change some of these games and take over just with that activity level and how hard he's

been working and so that's been really fun to watch and I think the you know the NHL released their player tracking stats at HL Edge and they've got him as like a 98th percentile skater in terms of like speed bursts and how fast he's skating and I buy it. I mean, that shouldn't be the case for someone who's as big as he is, but when you watch him play, that's that's exactly what he's been doing out there. So yeah, no, it's really cool seeing how you can disrupt games and, you know, he's the common theme we keep coming back to here is it feels like this season he's really found a way to just leverage a lot of these physical skills he has into functional, into functionality, right,

into stuff that puts his team in advantageous positions. Even if he's not the one directly benefiting from it, it's helping move them in the right direction and set the table for his teammates. And that's a very valuable thing as the Kings have found out this season. So what you're talking about, if you want to leverage individual assets, you have to win races,

win body position, win pucks, extend possession. Those are the things that you have to be able to do if you want to be able to, you know, turn games or extend games. These are the types of things that are your leverageable thing. So you take a guy 6-4 who's in the 90, whatever, 7th percentile in skating. He's winning races.

He's not dumping a puck to let the D-man go back, wait to see which side he's going to turn on and then put them through the boards. Meanwhile, the guys already moved the puck. He's racing to get ahead of the guy to win the first touch. When I started to really understand first touch, it really changed everything. Because when you study first touch on a just, if you just took a retrieval situation altogether and you just said, okay, I want to just take a look at the success rates of defensemen versus four checkers. And I'm only going to look at first touch. It is alarming the amount, like the correlation between first touch.

and success rate. And so it's not for checking, is not body checking as much as it used to be. It really isn't. It's winning races to get your stick on that puck first. That's what it is. And that's what happens. And so that's related to also how you dump a puck in

or the routes that you take on a shot, like on a loose puck, the route that you take to try to. to get body position. And then the physicality once you get there, because a lot of times it's not, you're not knocking the guy into the board. You're knocking them off the line to the puck.

And so that you can have exclusive access. And that's what I think we see is the way he's able to leverage, you know, his size is, to me, skating is phenomenal, this stuff that he does. And that's why I think he's a, if you ever wanted to study someone skating, take a look and their development in their, skating and what like what it should look like to to be able to leverage his

your skills in this way looking at him playing you know is his draft year in sudbury and then watching him play now and just look at the difference in how he utilizes his skating to create these things that I just mentioned it's like that's development and that's what it takes time to get there it certainly does and you know he's technically in his fourth NHL season I believe was drafted in 2020. The first one was just kind of a six game cup of coffee. He had a bunch of injuries along the way. You know, there was the COVID mess as well. Like there's, he's still 21 all the way through the season. I believe he turns 22 in August. Like this is serves as a good reminder of,

of patience when it comes to development that it's not always linear that sometimes it takes time to get into the right spot to develop these skills, figure out how you're going to leverage them and how you're going to use them at this level. And it's also cool that, you know, he's always going to be an strictly linked with Alexi Lafranier because they went one, two, in the same draft class. And Lafranier himself is experiencing a really nice offensive breakout playing with their Temi Panera in this year. He's doing it in a wildly different way. It's about the antithesis of Byfield where pretty much all of his offenses come from goal scoring and being on the receiving end and finishing, whereas Byfield is doing a lot of the other stuff in terms of creating

and playmaking. But both guys are getting it done and are serving as a good reminder for that patience. There's a few things I did notice or I wanted to note. as well. And this should be encouraging for a byfield and the Kings moving forward is that I think whether we want to talk about a shot or maybe how they're using him on the power play, I think there's actually even more untapped potential or like juice to be squeezed here. Because there's just other capacities that I think he contribute in. Right. On the power play, they use them on the second unit. And I get it. They have, you know, the big guns up front crowding the first unit. And for the second unit, he basically serves the role as the transporter. He

gets them into the zone. He carries a puck up the ice and gets the entry. I don't really like when they use him as the net front guy. I get the inclination to do so because he is such a massive body and he can kind of crowd the goalie and take away their eyesight. But we've talked about how the net front game has changed over the years and how it's much more about moving in and out and timing that and sort of becoming tougher to deal with rather than just kind of posting up and standing there. I don't like when they use him as the net front as much because I think it's almost neutralizing a lot of his main attributes, which is his agility and which is his playmaking ability.

And it's really tough to get him the puck there. He's generally just kind of standing and hoping to either screen or tip. Now, his shot hasn't really materialized into a real weapon yet. So I get the reluctance to put him on one of the flanks. But I don't know if you'd move him kind of more off the goal line and maybe have him darting from side to side, kind of like the lightning used to use Alex Clorin for years. I'm not sure how you'd utilize him on the power play. But I think I don't want him being stationary.

I want him constantly moving because I think that's when he's at his most dangerous. So what I see is I'd love to see him as man in the middle and study and a good study for him would be like what Larkin is doing in Detroit and trying to find, because now there's a distributing aspect of being a man in the middle. There's the agility and being able to slide into spaces just to be available. And then there's obviously the shooting component. But I see so many five-on-five transferability skills that he could further his development in all aspects of his game if he was utilized as man in the middle. And so that could be an interesting place for him. I also think with young player like that, like it's almost like you want to try to find,

because, you know, second half of, like a second unit power play is about 30 seconds on average, maybe a little bit more if you're lucky. So and you probably had to go back and get it first. So you're probably looking at, you know, maybe 22 to at best time in the seconds in the offensive zone. So some type of rotational thing where he can lose. move from one spot to the next and it might give them better information about where he might develop best next. I'm with you.

It's easy to take a six four guy with those kind of hands and put them at the net. Fair enough. And I don't discount the value of having a guy like that. But if you're just looking at it only from his personal development, then I think I'm with you, I think there's other places that he can play that might be more interesting and offer more transferability into his development in other aspects in his five-on-five game. Yeah, a couple of the sequences I've liked on the power play with him have actually been when he starts on the circle and then incorporates that the guy on the goal line and they do a little give and go

and he gets moving downhill and attacks the net. And then if he winds up settling is the net front there until the play rotates, I'm fine with that. But I don't want him to just. as option A, just go to the net and just kind of stand there. Like to me, I think they can be more ambitious with the way they deploy him there. But you're right. With the second unit, you're kind of picking at scraps. I think he's only scored the two goals so far. He only scored a couple goals last year as well.

What I like to see is his shot rate has gone up significantly this year, right? It's been a steady climb up for him. And this year, he's actually firing quite a high rate. And he's getting the opportunities. I think he's hit the post a couple of times. I don't see really anything in the mechanics or the opportunities getting to make me think that this guy is just going to be a massive net negative as a shooter. Like you'll probably always be more of a playmaker and more of an assist guy. But I think there is more goal and more conversion there for him.

And so if that happens, all of a sudden, even more passing lanes open up, right? You got to respect him as a dual threat and life becomes even easier for him as a distributor. So I think that's kind of the next step in terms of what I want to see from him. finally start converting on some of these shots that he is taking this season. Yeah, I mean, Nick, if you want to score, if he wants to score, he's going to have to get 225 to 300 shots. Like, that's just the right of passage is you've got to shoot more. And then to your point, which was where my mind was going when you were talking,

is the more he becomes a more dangerous shooter as a shot threat, the more he will find that there's going to be better plays that he'll be able to make that will end up as goals. And right now, as a young player, playing on a top line with a guy like Kempe and with a guy like Kopitar, it's very difficult to think that you're the best option, you're the best shot option.

And as time goes by, it's more maturity. I'm sure he gets back to the bench and Kopitar probably says to him, hey, you should shoot that one. And so there'll be permissions that are made along the way that offer him more of an opportunity to shoot the puck. I don't think he's, I don't think he doesn't have a good shot. I think that he, by the time he gets to where his mind is,

I'm going to shoot, he've exhausted every other option. And that just isn't the way it works. When you're, when you've arrived at, okay, I've looked at every shot, every pass option available, none of those are available. Now I'm going to shoot. You're looking at shooting from a real, deficit in terms of trying to generate opportunities. So I think for him, it's just going to be a steady climb of him choosing to be a shot option.

And the other thing is learning to shoot off the pass and learning to do a better job of landing on the net and finding those secondary opportunities around the net, those might be another way for him to at least get started in scoring a lot more. Good stuff. All right, Daryl, we've got to get out of here. We're out of time for today. It's a shame because I could probably do another full hour of hockey talk with you while I've got you.

But we're just going to have to settle for waiting until next week when we pick another muse and get back in the lab to break their tape down. In the meantime, if you're enjoying these shows that Daryl and I've been putting out there but you aren't watching the accompanying videos, then you're missing out. So to rectify that, just go to the Hockeypedia guest's YouTube page. where we've got the full archives up for all the players we've given the deep dive treatment to so far this year, like we just did with Quentin Pyefield. Just getting to see the clips for yourself while we're talking about them is super helpful if you're a visual learner like myself.

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We've got a bunch of people in there already. And there's some good chats going on as it continues to grow moving forward. We're going to start using it to solicit show topics and get future mailback questions and all that good stuff. Okay. That's all I've got for today. Thank you for listening to us. And we'll be back soon with plenty more of the Hockey, Ocast streaming on the SportsNet Radio Network.