Quote:
Originally Posted by Beatle17
Not arguing with you but a quick look at the top scorers in the league, which to me are quite valuable, 8/10 shoot left. Weird how we all take that shoot's right as gospel about how important they are.
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You're kind of missing the forest for the trees. Other than the Oilers, pretty much every potent powerplay unit in the NHL has a right-shot forward or two complementing the "top scorer".
If you look at Tampa's deadly PP, yes Kucherov shoots left. But the primary passing options he has are Point (right) and Stamkos (right). That split-second between passing across their bodies and feeding their wheelhouse can be the difference between a much-needed PP goal and no goal.
MacKinnon and Rantanen play a similar role on Colorado's PP. They also have Makar (RHS) on the point.
Washington, Toronto, Boston, etc all follow a similar PP setup. Even Calgary
tried to have that, but Toffoli didn't work out in that "Stamkos" role.
A few years ago, when Vancouver had a killer PP, Boeser was a huge part of that iirc.
Being rhs doesn't make you better. But it adds values to your presence on the ice.