Kevin Stenlund's faceoff prowess highlights an underappreciated art and a Utah HC strength

When Utah Hockey Club center Kevin Stenlund was younger, he took a que sera, sera approach to faceoffs.

“I was always pretty good on faceoffs, but I never really thought about how important it was,” he said. “I would just go into faceoffs, like, ‘If I win it, great. If I don’t, whatever.'”

Wisdom and good coaching have altered that perspective dramatically. So much, in fact, that Stenlund led the NHL in faceoff percentage by players with at least 190 draws entering a game on Wednesday against the Carolina Hurricanes at Delta Center.

Stenlund is winning a whopping 65.3 percent of his draws. Couple that with Barrett Hayton’s 61.6 winning percentage and the UHC boasts the NHL’s top team faceoff percentage (54.9).

“It’s become a big part of my game,” Stenlund said, “and a part of the game that can make a huge difference in the outcome.”

There’s a simple explanation for why coaches and players value faceoffs.

“The easiest way to look at it is ‘Everyone’s trying to get the puck,'” said retired center Brad Richardson, who posted a 53.1 percent success rate over 17 NHL seasons. “That’s the whole game, getting the puck and keeping the puck, so you might as well start with it off a faceoff.” 

That said, not all faceoffs are created equal. While every team would prefer to win a draw over losing it, a lost faceoff in the neutral zone isn’t going to cost you as much as a lost faceoff in the defensive zone. A lost faceoff in the defensive zone on the penalty kill might cost you the chance to clear the puck or even result in a goal against.

That’s where Stenlund really shines. As a player relied on more for his defense than his offense, 78.3 percent of Stenlund’s zone starts have come in the defensive zone. He has won 119 of 195 defensive-zone draws (61 percent) and a stunning 46 of 68 shorthanded faceoffs (67.6 percent).

“He’s given us so much stability on the PK,” said Utah assistant coach John Madden, who also coached Stenlund in the AHL with the Cleveland Monsters. “I think we’ve killed four 5-on-3s and I believe he has won all of those faceoffs.”

For perspective on Stenlund’s overall percentage, New Jersey’s Michael McLeod owns the NHL’s highest single-season faceoff percentage ever recorded at 65.03. Yanic Perreault owns the highest career faceoff winning percentage in NHL history at 61.1. He is the only player since the stat has been tracked above 60 percent. That’s how fine the line is between winning and losing.

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“There’s so many layers to it,” said Madden, who had a winning percentage of 52.3 over his final four NHL seasons. “I think the first layer you need to have is the fundamentals and the leverage and the understanding of what works for you — understanding what your strengths are in the dot.

“The other layer that you’ve got to peel back is you’ve got to give it time. If you look at the first four seasons for Eric Staal with Carolina, he wasn’t over 50 percent. You can do the same with [LA’s Anže] Kopitar and most of the great faceoff men. There’s a learning curve to it. I think that’s the one thing that gets overlooked is how long it takes to become a really good faceoff guy.”

Stenlund said there were stages in his development as a faceoff man, and there were also key mentors along the way. Teammate Chris Abbott helped him while he played for HV in the Swedish Hockey League. Madden helped him in the AHL, and Winnipeg Jets coach Rick Bowness appealed to his ego, telling him he could be an elite faceoff man if he put the time into it.

“I just saw how big and strong he was on his stick,” Bowness said. “He’s got good hand-eye coordination with quickness and being competitive in the circle. Being a right-hand shot also helped because they are hard to find.”

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The art of the faceoff is one that is lost on many fans. They just see two centers lining up and then the result. There is so much more that happens in the seconds between when the two players arrive in the circle and the time when possession is decided. There are reads, there is communication and there are little tricks that most active centers are loath to disclose.

Richardson highlighted a few keys.

“One of the biggest things is knowing your linesman’s name so you’re not just saying, ‘Hey Liney,’ he said. “That was the first thing I told a lot of young guys. Just say hi to them. They like that. They feel like they’re part of the game. Just talk to him like a human being and kind of become friends in a way. Guys have to work together. They want a clean faceoff and you want them to give you a fair drop. You want to know, ‘Hey, am I jumping too early?'”

Another thing that Richardson (and Madden) highlighted is the importance of linemates in winning faceoffs. Madden noted that Patrice Bergeron’s success was directly tied to linemate Brad Marchand knowing what he was trying to do.

“I always talked to my wingers and the defenseman at every draw to let them know, ‘The puck’s coming your way. You’ve got to be ready here because it might be a 50-50 or a 60-40 puck in my favor,'” Richardson said. “If everyone’s ready, we have an advantage. 

“When you’re earlier in your career, you don’t think about these things. But when your coach comes to you and asks why your percentage is below 50, that really comes down to you. As a center, you’re the quarterback. You’ve got to let people know what’s going on, and if you do, they can add another two or three or four percent to your percentage and that’s huge in the end.”

Richardson was a master trickster. At a generously listed 6 feet tall, Richardson did not have the size or the strength to compete with some of the NHL’s big pivots like Kopitar or Joe Thornton so he used his size to get lower, sometimes even diving onto his knees.

“I had some linesmen tell me,’You can’t do that,’ and I’d say, “Show me where in the rulebook it says I can’t,'” he said. “They couldn’t so I kept doing it.”

Richardson’s favorite gag was almost too unbelievable to be true.

“Just before the linesman would drop the puck, I’d look at the center and say, ‘Hey, your skate’s untied,'” he said. “He’d look at his skates instead of the puck and I’d win the draw. Derek Stepan would always die laughing when I told him I did that.”

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Stenlund is not much of a talker in the circle. He’s more of an analyst.

“Before every game, I watch the other team’s faceoff guys to see what their strengths are and try to take that away from them,” he said. “I have my own tricks. I have two moves I like to do, especially in the D-zone, but I try to block a lot of what they want to do and create situations where it’s tough for them to make their move.”

Madden underscored Stenlund’s hand-eye coordination as a critical component in his faceoff success — “he gets his stick on a lot of pucks” — but he also emphasized that there is more to Stenlund’s game than just winning faceoffs. Even though he only has a goal and two points, Madden discovered that Stenlund has an NHL caliber shot all those years ago in Cleveland, he has a lot of skill for a big man, and he has a good hockey sense which gives the coaching staff comfort in a lot of situations.

“He’s been really good defensively, but I think he has more to offer with his shot and his ability to score goals,” Madden said.

Stenlund is still finding his way in a new city with new teammates and new systems after winning the Stanley Cup last season in Florida, so when asked if leading the NHL in faceoff percentage matters to him, he qualified the answer.

“I will care about that when the season ends if I’m still number one,” he said. “I obviously take a lot of pride in it. I looked up to people like Bergeron when I came into the league who were really good defensively and good at faceoffs. Hopefully I can stick with that percentage for the whole year.”

Top photo of Kevin Stenlund winning a faceoff against the Rangers Sam Carrick via Getty Images

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