Defenseman roles

Every defenseman plays one of three roles: offensive, two-way or stay-at-home. Give each defenseman a role on the Role assignments screen, then give each pair a focus in Edit lineup that both partners suit. A defenseman without an assigned role plays the one he fits best. How roles are assigned, and what happens when a player wants a different one, is covered in player roles. This page describes the three defenseman roles and how two of them work together as a pair.

The three roles

The role tells a defenseman what his job is: lead the attack, play both ends, or protect his own zone. On the Role assignments screen every role shows a fit word — Poor fit, Ok fit, Good fit or Natural fit — and the role he fits best is marked Best fit. If one role reads Natural fit or Good fit and the others read lower, that role suits him; if two roles read alike, choose the one your pairs need (see putting a pair together).

A role does not make a defenseman better or worse at anything. His ratings decide how well he plays. The role decides how often he is the one in the play: the one creating the chance, taking the shot, defending against it, or ending up in a fight. Every time, the choice is made among all five skaters on the ice, so a role also shifts work to and from his forwards.

On the Role assignments screen this appears under “How the role uses him”. The words compare him with every skater on the ice, forwards included, which is why even the offensive defenseman shoots less often than average.

Role	Creating chances	Shooting	Defending	Fights and majors
Offensive	Average	Less often	Less often	Rarely
Two-way	Less often	Rarely	More often	Average
Stay-at-home	Rarely	Rarely	Very often	Very often

Whatever his role, a shot from a defense spot is never easier to score from than a forward’s shot from the same chance, and usually harder. The rule follows the spot, not the player: a forward who plays the point on the power play shoots the harder shot too. Expected goals count the spot as part of the chance; see expected goals.

Offensive

An offensive defenseman leads the attack from the blue line. He moves the puck up ice, joins the rush and sets up his forwards. Of the three roles, he is the one most often creating chances and picking up assists, and the one most often taking the shot.

The role is built on passing and shooting, with puck handling behind them. A defenseman whose passing stands clearly above his league, and who can also shoot or handle the puck, fits it best.

He is less often the one defending, and he rarely ends up in fights or majors. His partner and his forwards carry more of the work in his own zone.

Two-way

A two-way defenseman has a balanced role. He defends his blue line, moves the puck and supports the attack without leading it. He is more often than average the one defending, and he rarely takes the shot himself.

The role asks for both halves of the game in equal measure: defense, physical play and spirit on one side, passing, shooting and puck handling on the other. Strength on either side helps, and strength on both fits him best.

He takes an ordinary share of fights and majors.

Stay-at-home

A stay-at-home defenseman protects his own zone. He is the one most often defending the chance and the shot: blocking shots, clearing the front of the net, staying back as the last man. He very rarely creates a chance or shoots.

The role is built on defense and physical play, with spirit. A defenseman with little offensive game fits it better, not worse.

His physical game comes at a price. Of the three roles, he is the one most often in fights and major penalties.

What each role looks for after a game

After every game each defenseman measures his own game against what his role asks of him, and in a regular-season or playoff game it counts toward his confidence. The game report shows this under “What we ask of him”. If a defenseman keeps losing confidence after games, that is where to look: it shows where his nights fall short of his role.

• Offensive looks for points and shots. His best nights bring a point and a steady stream of shots.
• Two-way looks for points and being on the plus side; a takeaway also counts. His best nights bring both a point and a plus.
• Stay-at-home looks for no goals against while he is on the ice, and for hits or blocked shots. His best nights bring both.

Over a run of games, how he measures up also leaves him happy or unhappy with how he is playing. How confidence and happiness affect his play is covered in player form and happiness.

Pairs and their focus

Each defense pair has a focus, set per pair in Edit lineup: Support offense, Stay at home, Match line or Dynamic. Give a pair a focus both partners suit. When you pick a spot on a pair, each defenseman’s fit word shows how his role suits that pair’s focus — not how well he fits the role, which Role assignments shows: if both partners read Ideal fit or Good fit, the pair suits it; a Poor fit on either partner makes the pair fail its focus more often.

At even strength the game checks again and again whether the pair carries out its focus.

• Support offense is tried when your team has the puck.
• Stay at home is tried every time.
• Dynamic and Match line are tried at both ends, and ask the same of the pair in this check.

Each partner’s attempt rests on his own play and on how well his role suits the focus. The pair only carries out its focus when both partners do; if one of them fails, the pair fails. A pair that carries out its focus gives the team momentum at that end, and one that fails costs some. Each attempt also moves the player’s own confidence a little. The game report tells you how your pairs held their focus (under Dynamic or Match line, the report calls them two-way pairs).

The focus also tilts how the pair plays; that is covered under lineup.

How well each role suits each focus, in the fit words Edit lineup shows:

Role	Support offense	Stay at home	Dynamic or Match line
Offensive	Ideal fit	Poor fit	Fair fit
Two-way	Good fit	Good fit	Good fit
Stay-at-home	Poor fit	Ideal fit	Fair fit

A defenseman who fits his role well also carries out the focus more reliably than one playing a role he does not suit.

Putting a pair together

A pair works when its two roles share the work in the play and both suit the pair’s focus. If you have a two-way defenseman, pair him with a specialist under the specialist’s focus: an Ideal fit beside a Good fit. If you have two of the same specialist, give them their own focus, where both read Ideal fit.

The roles combine in two ways, and they pull in different directions.

Who does the work. In the play itself, an offensive defenseman next to a stay-at-home partner splits the work cleanly: one carries the attack, the other the defending. With two offensive defensemen, more of the defending falls to the forwards; with two stay-at-home defensemen, more of the attack does.

Carrying out the focus. For the pair’s focus, partners whose roles suit the same focus work best. An offensive and a stay-at-home defenseman never both suit one focus: under Support offense the stay-at-home partner reads Poor fit, under Stay at home the offensive one does, and under Dynamic or Match line both read Fair fit.

A two-way defenseman suits every focus, which makes him the easiest partner for either specialist. Two specialists of the same kind, under their own focus, suit it best of all.

The role a defenseman wants

A defenseman may ask for a role of his own. The Role assignments screen marks it with “Wants this role”.

A defenseman wants a role he fits. The offensive and two-way roles appeal to anyone who fits them. Stay-at-home takes a certain temperament: a player who is nervous in big games, a gentle one, or a cocky one who would rather run the offense himself seldom asks for it. A defenseman who expects a big role on the team leans toward the offensive or two-way role ahead of stay-at-home.

What happens when he does not get the role he wants is covered in player roles.

Worth knowing

• A role never makes a defenseman better or worse at anything; it decides how often he is the one in the play.
• Even an offensive defenseman shoots less often than average, because the comparison takes in every skater on the ice, forwards included.
• A pair carries out its focus only when both partners do; one partner who fails it fails the pair.
• An offensive and a stay-at-home defenseman split the work cleanly in the play, but no pair focus suits both of them.
• A two-way defenseman suits every pair focus, but never as well as a specialist under his own focus.