There are many defensemen in the SMJHL, but what does that position entail? What does it really mean to be a defenseman? How do you build to be an effective one?

I ask this because, if we take the build of every defenseman in the league as listed in the league index, and calculate how much TPE has been invested into defensive attributes specifically... you might be surprised how many actually spend the majority of their TPE on defense (precisely five of seventy-nine listed players put at least 50% of their TPE into defensive attributes).

You can make a strong argument that a lot of investment is required for physical and mental attributes to be an effective defenseman, and I agree, but you can equally argue that those attributes are required to be an effective attacker… so I will be looking at how much TPE each player has applied to defensive attributes if we disregard all improvement to physical and mental attributes. That is, what percentage of TPE applied to only offensive or defensive attributes went to each?

Now, of course, there are different kinds of defenseman, but surely at a base level, the most important role of a player in this position is to be a capable defender. So this is where my focus is right now. I have created a list in order of defensive TPE spend (i.e. TPE spent on defensive attributes/ total spend on offensive and defensive attributes). I’m curious how this correlates with OGR/DGR and stats like shots, points, hits, and blocks. Is it possible to create a well-balanced player or is it better to focus one way or the other?

In this first deep dive (of two) I will take a look at the bottom of the list, i.e. those who have invested the most in offensive attributes as a priority over defensive attributes. I am also ignoring players with fewer than 200 TPE spent in total, as it’s a safe bet that they are not going to be particularly active players and I don’t want to skew the numbers too much.

Gregory Goode (ANC)
Right Defense | 75% OFF | 25% DEF
257 shots on goal, 62 points | 68 blocks, 14 hits
71 OGR | 56 DGR

Right away we can see that Goode’s investment in offensive attributes has yielded a strong offensive showing as he leads all defensemen in the league for points (and assists). Defensively, he has roughly 40% the number of blocks as the league leader, and 5% the number of hits. Goode has a 5 for HIT which explains the latter, while his positioning, shot blocking and defensive read rate at 13, 10, and 15 respectively which is still quite strong (averages are around 13 for the first two and 14 for defensive read), so the only explanations for the low number of blocks are fewer shots faced, or lower mentals (only 7 in bravery; average is 9)

Robert Feltersnatch (STL)
Left Defense | 71% OFF | 29% DEF
135 shots on goal, 33 points | 96 blocks, 101 hits
58 OGR | 64 DGR

Feltersnatch appears to have actually invested heavily in physicals (almost as much as offensive attributes) though his defensive attributes are still fairly good (within 0.6 of a point of average or better in all except positioning and shot blocking). This distribution seems to have him rated above average both offensively and defensively -- with FHM’s internal defensive game rating actually better than his offensive counterpart, despite the disparity in TPE spend. The distribution of his physical attributes is noticeably above average, though. Only fighting is below average, with everything else except agility at least 0.75 above the league average.

Aleksandrs Balcers (NL)
Left Defense | 67% OFF | 33% DEF
307 shots on goal, 60 points | 11 blocks, 101 hits
74 OGR | 66 DGR

Balcers is a lot like Goode, in that he has been outstanding offensively (15 each for passing, puckhandling, and offensive reads will do that, I suppose) and reasonable in one of the defensive aspects (number of hits is good). The low number of blocks is likely due to low bravery, as with Goode, but some investment in hitting, checking and defensive reads shows in Balcers’ hitting output. Notably, Balcers has a good score in both offensive and defensive game rating, with the stronger being offensive as expected. The defensive rating however, is about as good as at least one player at the opposite end of my list…

Janne Virtanen (MET)
Left Defense | 66% OFF | 34% DEF
159 shots on goal, 35 points | 137 blocks, 100 hits
59 OGR | 79 DGR

Virtanen is a curious case, because despite putting almost twice as much TPE into offensive attributes compared to defensive, his defensive stats arguably rate among the best in the league for defensemen (3rd in shots blocked, 29 hits short of the top ten). His offensive output is also strong, though, as 35 points is only 6 short of the top ten, and 13 goals is good enough for 6th among defensemen. It looks like this is down to Virtanen’s heavy investment in physical attributes, where he rates as average or better in everything except fighting and strength. Perhaps being a good skater is more important than anything else after all…

Conclusions
It’s hard to draw conclusions from a small sample of data but the cases of Virtanen and Balcers are intriguing. Particularly Virtanen’s defensive game rating when considering the stronger focus on offense. Depending on my findings when I dive into the numbers for the most defensive builds, it may be that an approximation of 2:1:1 across offensive:defensive:physical yields the best outcome. Feltersnatch having a reasonably good showing across offensive and defensive stats with a high physical spend seems to back up this idea also.