There are times when Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo will sit across from Zdeno Chara at a meal and just start asking questions. He has a future Hall of Famer in front of him while eating and next to him on the ice, and the 19-year-old Colorado native wants to take full advantage of this access.
“It’s crazy,” Carlo said. “I just talk to him about when he was in my position.”
That seems like a long time ago.
At 19 years old, Chara was playing for the Prince George Cougars in the Western Hockey League after being a third-round pick of the New York Islanders.
That may seem like an eternity ago to a teenager, but to Chara it doesn’t feel like it was all that long ago. That’s some of the wisdom he’s passed on to his young D partner. The whole NHL experience goes by in a blink.
Soak it all up now, don’t just try to survive. Enjoy the process of trying to become a good defenseman in the NHL because next thing you know, you’re 39 years old and closing in on the end.
“He wishes when he was 19 years old, someone would have come up to him and said that,” Carlo said. “Having his experience and knowledge about all these experiences in this league has been cool to have.”
And Carlo has most definitely taken advantage. Selected with the No. 37 overall pick in the 2015 draft, a pick acquired from the Islanders by former GM Peter Chiarelli in the trade that sent Johnny Boychuk to New York, Carlo is part of the larger trend of teams willing to go young, but more specifically, teams willing to give important minutes to young defensemen.
Of Carlo’s 124:08 even-strength minutes, 110:07 of them have come with Chara on the ice with him. Together, they’re controlling 52.3 percent of the shot attempts. There’s been a ton of focus on the great young forwards in the league and Tuesday night’s exciting game between the Oilers and Maple Leafs reminded that it is all completely justified. But young defensemen like Carlo are getting opportunity and keeping it.
“He has what it takes,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said. “His mistakes are not caused by a lack of effort or a lack of hockey knowledge. It’s just a lack of experience at times. We can live with that because the only way he’s going to get it is by playing. We like the bigger picture of Brandon Carlo right now. He brings more positive than negatives.”
It used to be that the NHL was no place for a teenaged defenseman. Way back in the day, like last year, there were guys like Noah Hanifin and Aaron Ekblad and that was just about it. And we’re not even counting Ekblad until we see a birth certificate.
The number is creeping up. Carlo leads all rookie defensemen with 22:35 of ice time per game. That’s pretty impressive for a 19 year old. Zach Werenski, also 19, isn’t too far behind, at 21:52.
The Blue Jackets are over .500 for the first time in the John Tortorella era and Werenski is a big reason for the success.
Werenski had another two points in the Blue Jackets' win Tuesday and leads all rookie defensemen with eight points in eight games. He has as many points as fellow rookie Patrik Laine, a guy compared to Alex Ovechkin. So there’s that.
During a summer chat with Tortorella, the coach shared that he was going to use Werenski in a big way and push him hard.
“He has another gear,” Tortorella said. “He knows he has another gear.”
He seems to be finding it.
The Flyers are leaning on 19-year-old Ivan Provorov to the tune of 20:02 per game. Meanwhile, Jakob Chychrun, from the draft class of 2016, continues to earn the trust of coach Dave Tippett. He played 12:09 in his rookie debut. On Tuesday, he played 23:39 in a win over the reigning Western Conference champion Sharks.
He just turned 18 in March.
These guys aren’t just getting token minutes, they’ve been a big part of the success of their teams.
In Boston, there have been justifiable questions as to why there isn’t another veteran defenseman on that roster. It probably still needs one, but the flip side is that an opportunity was given to Carlo and he’s capitalizing.
“There’s plenty of young guys in this organization prospect-wise,” Carlo said. “This D-corps is going to be really strong in the future.”
Here’s a look at a couple of other early-season trends:
The value of forward depth
We all want our superstar forwards and franchise centermen, but not every team gets one or two of those players. In lieu of that, teams have opted to try and win with depth at forward and it’s been a successful strategy.
The two teams that advanced to the Stanley Cup finals last year are still great examples of how advantageous it is to have a strong bottom six at forward. But Pittsburgh and San Jose also has the advantage of rolling out stars like Sidney Crosby, Joe Thornton, Evgeni Malkin and Joe Pavelski.
The Rangers are getting great production from their top six and the balance throughout the forward group contributes to that success.
The Red Wings are another team that has balance through out all their lines, and the payoff has been early success.
The Blues have always been built this way and even after losing forward depth when David Backes and Troy Brouwer left, they continue to win because of a deep stable of wingers and centers.
“The best fourth line in hockey is in St. Louis,” said an Eastern Conference scout. “They have so much depth there.”
Tampa Bay and Washington are a threat because both can beat you with the bottom six. If you’ve got the stars, you pay them and figure out the rest later like the Blackhawks are doing. If you don’t, the best alternative may be four lines that don’t look all that different from one another.
Penalty kill trouble for offensive blue lines
OK, so this is still a working theory. In fact, it’s a theory that has already been shot down by an advanced stats analyst and an NHL scout.
“I would not agree with that theory yet,” said the scout. “It’s way too early.”
But I’m presenting it to you anyways because I like it.
Many of the teams that populate the bottom third of the penalty kill standings are teams that have built blue lines around mobile, offensive defensemen who are strong skaters. Teams like Chicago, Nashville, Arizona, Florida and Pittsburgh. It’s great during even strength -- these offensive defensemen quickly get the puck and start the transition the other way.
But when hemmed in on a penalty kill, you want defensemen who are a little more rugged, can consistently win battles along the boards, box out in front of the goalie and have a well-honed defensive game. The kind of skills slowly disappearing stay-at-home defensemen often feature.
It might be worth keeping one of those guys around for the PK. At least that’s the early working theory anyways if this trend continues.
“I think it’s way too early to draw the conclusion,” the scout said.