The Red Wings have a number of puck-moving, offensively competent defensemen who add versatility and depth to the attack without giving up a whole lot the other way

So far in their first round series against the Boston Bruins, the Toronto Maple Leafs have been overwhelmed. On one hand, injuries have piled up, and Ilya Samsonov hasn’t been stellar in net. But as some observers have noted, the Maple Leafs are also struggling because their blue line is a non-factor on offense. Boston is able to thwart their forwards, and their defensemen aren’t good enough in the offensive zone to overcome this. Instead of scheming to stop five players each shift, the Bruins can mostly concentrate their efforts on three forwards. The Maple Leafs, partially because of this, are on the ropes.

If the Leafs have shown that puck-movers are vital to playoff success, then the Detroit Red Wings are in luck. Their defense, built through high draft picks over an eight-year rebuild, features a lot of pillars who can move the puck well. 

No. 1 defenseman Moritz Seider is an offensive factor despite playing more of a physical archetype, and Jake Walman can also score as his griddying antics have shown time to time. Simon Edvinsson might not have produced in his end-of-season call-up, but he is a willing passer and dynamic skater to create offensive chances. If he sticks around, Shayne Gostisbehere led the Red Wings' defense in scoring this season. And one day when Axel Sandin Pellikka joins the squad (he’s at least another year away according to GM Steve Yzerman), Detroit will enjoy the fruits of a defenseman who almost broke the U19 scoring record over in the SHL. Detroit’s defense of the future doesn’t just benefit from some offensive defensemen — it’s almost entirely built from them.

So why does a defense have to be adequate on offense for playoff success? Offensive involvement from defenseman leads to, well, goals. Goals lead to wins. On a more specific level, part of the success of an offensive defense corps comes from the way it forces other teams to adapt. When a mobile defenseman is able to step up on offense, it forces opposing players to pay attention to them at the blue line instead of playing back a bit to help out on forwards. It keeps opponents honest against a five-player attack, rather than scheming to get an advantage if they know a certain defenseman isn’t going to make much noise on the box score.

Now, mobility and offensive impact go hand-in-hand, but it doesn’t even take a really dynamic skater to make an offensive impact. While defensemen such as Quinn Hughes or Cale Makar find success through their quick feet by walking the blue line and deking out opponents, defensemen without these tools can also make an offensive impact simply by placing good passes to dangerous areas or placing a shot where someone can tip it. This is how even a physical archetype defenseman such as Ben Chairot can make an impact for Detroit — his 20 points this season weren’t world-breaking, but they made a difference in close games. It’s a safe bet that this would’ve stuck in the playoffs, too. Pretty much every team will have a star defenseman who can score, but it takes contributions up and down the lineup come playoff time.

Another underrated part of an offensively impactful blue line is the way that a sound attack prevents chances from going the other way. It’s a possession-hockey truism that when one team has the puck, its opponent can’t go the other way and attack with it. Possession is defense, and a good offense can aid its defense by slashing its hard minutes in the defensive zone. In other words, defensemen who can take a role in the offensive attack help themselves out on the back end.

The impact of an offensively competent blue line can be seen in the teams that made the playoffs. The Avalanche and Oilers who led points per game by defensemen in the regular season are two contending teams who could go deep in the playoffs. Strictly looking at postseason scoring, the team with more points per game by defensemen are up in seven of the eight series. A scoring blue line is a winning one.

A defense corps doesn’t have to be offensively dominant to win a playoff series — it just has to be competent enough so as not to be a detriment. The Maple Leafs’ blue line has held them back due to its lack of an offensive footprint, and the Leafs are now staring down their sixth first-round exit (seventh if you count the pandemic play-in) in the past eight seasons. Scoring defensemen aren’t the only reason that’s the case, but it doesn’t help matters.

Luckily for Detroit, it’s in a position where its blue line is offensively impactful with Seider in the present, Sandin Pellikka in the future, and a whole host of other offense facilitators from the back end. If and when Detroit makes the playoffs in the future, it might not have the same worries that the Maple Leafs’ defensive corps raises.

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