In the eyes of a QB

Today’s post is a collaboration with Josh Mallory from Mallory’s Playbook. In his newsletter, Josh took a detailed look at the Minnesota Wild power play. He brought some great ideas with player deployment and tactics on how the Wild can improve their man advantage. In this piece, I’ll talk about what it takes to be a great power play quaterback and why Calen Addison could be a good option for the Wild top PP unit. I strongly suggest you to read Josh’s piece by clicking on this picture:

Calen Addison's PP impact

Numbers

Calen Addison has been a dominant power play quarterback for the past three seasons in the WHL. In 2019-20, he was the QB of a strong Lethbridge Hurricanes PP's who ended the season with a 23.1% success rate (seventh overall in the WHL). According to Pick224 numbers, Addison finished the season 5th amongst WHL defensemen for primary points on the man advantage. Here’s the top eight:

For additional context, his 21 power play primary assists in his draft season rank first in this category for the past three seasons in the WHL amongst defensemen (2nd in the last 13 years in the WHL). Last season, he was also the PP1 QB for Team Canada at WJC. They won the gold medal and finished the tournament first on the man advantage with an impressive  41.18%.

I also tracked some PP microstats at the pro level this season. It's a small sample size (5 games, 2 NHL, 3 AHL), but it gives us an idea to see how successful Addison has been early in his pro career on the PP. Here are his total in zone PP puck touches in these five games. Unblocked shot attempts, shot assists, shot assists that created a scoring chance, pass & others (blocked shot attempt, turnovers, etc.):

Video room

I believe there are five key elements needed to be an efficient PP1 QB. Although there's some fine-tuning to do in Addison's PP work, we'll see in these clips how he's already doing these five elements.

1-Breakout

Two elements are really important to lead the breakout. 1. The QB needs to read the PK press well. For example, if the breakout formation is usually a drop pass but on a certain retrieval the opposing team has an aggressive F1 instead of a passive one, the QB needs to identify this situation and may choose to make a direct pass to quickly exit the zone and enter with speed instead of carrying for a drop pass. The QB should also be aware of space. If he’s in a drop situation but he identifies more space (quality ice) in front of him, he’s got to have the poise to use that space and enter the zone in control by himself or by kicking out the puck to his ladder option around the blueline. 2. The QB needs to beat F1 on his first play. Whether it's drop play or quick breakout, he needs to attract F1 to take him out of the play. The goal is to attract F1 then pass the puck to an open player with speed in an area with more space (less pressure):

In this video, we can see Addison adjusting his breakout strategy according to the press and using open space. We can also see him beating/attracting F1 in multiple situations.

2- Vision through multiple layers in the offensive zone

That's the most important attribute for a PP QB in my opinion, separating the average one from the great one. In the 1-3-1 setup, the most frequent action for the QB is to distribute the puck on both half-wall. But before this action, the QB needs to identify if there's a more dangerous play available by scanning the zone through multiple layers of pressure with his eyes up. in this clip, we can see Addison making plays through multiple layers, whether it's with the bumper guy and by finding an open net-front player/stick.

3- Blueline work

That's a huge strength of Addison's game. We can see many things he's doing well when walking the line on the PP:

-Eyes up

-Great 4-way mobility to change direction and walk the line

-Ability to make plays and maneuver in tight space

-Ability to make a play on forehand and backhand

-Ability to skill blend when receiving passes (backhand to forehand in a crossover motion)

-Passing/moving the puck to players with open space

-Knows when to walk the line with the puck or when to quickly change the side of the attack with a hard pass to the opposite half-wall guy (no dust)

-Active puck support to be an option for the forward in possession of the puck. They can ''blindly'' pass the puck to him by the board because they know he's gonna be there

-Surpassing the ''middle line'' when walking on the blueline before passing the puck on the half-wall to bring the PK F1 with him so the half-wall player can have more open ice to make a play:

4- Deception

Being deceptive (giving false information) is really important for the QB, especially when climbing levels because the PK'er are better and smarter. In this video, we can see Addison using deception in many ways:

-By having the puck in his hip pocket with his eyes up (in a position you can shoot or make plays in any direction)

-Making plays in the opposite direction of his body: feet & eyes looking at the right half-wall guy but passing to the left half-wall guy)

-Fake slap and wrist shot

-Shoulders/head fake

5- Shooting threat

Playmaking/passing is the priority for the QB, but being a shooting threat is important when shooting lanes/opportunities open. It can also open more passing options if the PK'er respect your shot. Addison possesses a quick wrist shot that can get through and a pretty hard slap shot.

Conclusion

I like the Wild’s decision to send back Addison in the AHL to play huge minutes and to keep improving his overall game (to read more on his overall play). As far as power play ability though, I believe he can be a solution for the Wild for the reasons mentioned in here and all the great points in Josh’s piece.

Clips powered by In Stat hockey

WHL numbers from Pick224

Ice drawn from Ice Hockey Systems