The benefits of being an off-hand winger

Let's look at some film and tell a story about Jason Spezza, Patrick Kane, Vladimir Tarasenko, and Rhett Rakhshani.

During the 2017-18 season Jason Spezza effectively hit a rut with the Dallas Stars.

The forward was struggling and did not mesh well with Ken Hitchcock. In fact, late during that 2017-18 season, there were members of the Stars front office who told me that there was no way Spezza and Hitchcock could both be in the same organization for another season.

In the end Hitchcock soft retired, and a year later Spezza left the organization.

But that Spezza-Hitchcock season of discontent did bring up one of the more interesting conversations I had with a player about handedness and which wing a forward plays.

Hitchcock deployed Spezza multiple times as a fourth-line left winger, something the long-time center had never played in his career. Spezza always had a bit of a gallows style humor when it came to things like this, and told me at the time he felt like a Russian — like Alexander Radulov — now playing on his off-wing.

After the comedy, Spezza did explain the pros and cons of off-handedness — he was a hockey nerd, he was great for writers — and it’s something I often think about when watching a player like Nikita Kucherov, a left-shot right-wing that’s won the Hart Trophy as league MVP.

It was also something I thought about heavily yesterday when the Detroit Red Wings had Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko on the same line to start training camp, a pair of left-shot right-wing forwards playing with J.T. Compher.

While Russians playing on their off-wing is more common, Kane is one of the more pre-dominant North Americans to play that way, carving a Hall of Fame career by slaloming up the right side and cutting to the middle for better scoring chances.

Kane grew up playing as a center, but started his journey as an off-hand winger while playing with the National Team Development Program. Kane was on a line with Rhett Rakhshani at the NTDP and Rakhshani was a right-handed shot that liked to play on his left.

“It just kind of grew, just being on your offside, having the puck to the middle, guys being able to cut to the middle, especially if you are playing with a guy that can one-time the puck,” Kane said. “It seems to work pretty well and you can make those cross-ice passes.”

Thinking about all of this, I decided to pull some video from Tarasenko last season to try and illustrate what Kane is talking about.

First, let’s look at this assist.

I wanna go back and pause the video right here:

If Tarasenko is a right-handed shot coming down the right side he effectively has two options, drive along the wall to try and create a better angle for a pass or shoot. It’s a much easier read for the defender.

But as a left-handed shot coming down the right, he instantly has more options and is unpredictable. From here he can cut to the middle for a shot, still drive down the wall, or make the pass like he eventually does to set up the goal.

It’s one of the things I like watching about Tarasenko, while he’s had some up-and-down years, he’s always done a nice job being unpredictable off the wing.

It’s also something that Tarasenko does well without the puck.

As a lefty coming down the right, he’s always open for quicker shot or one-timer. Look at this chance from Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, and at how Tarasenko is able to shoot right away instead of having to let the puck come all the way across his body.

Here’s another example, this time from the regular season, where the puck ended up in the back of the net. Tarasenko is wide open to receive the pass and has more angles to shoot because of his handedness.

I also pulled one last piece of video for fun, this one of Rakhshani, scoring as an off-hand winger during the 2021-22 season with Djurgårdens back in Sweden.

And with that, have a happy Friday this weekend. NHL preseason games start tomorrow.