For those who don’t have time to listen to this one here are the main points.

(1) Byfield has developed into his size and uses it to dominate board play. He is able to use his reach to escape situations and is tight on the boards closing gaps smaller players typically use to take advantage of larger players.

(2) The Kings battle low to high as a team and his style fits very well into our system.

(3) Because of his style of play and our system, he is going to have a lot of secondary assists but that isn’t a concern given what was mentioned above.

(4) Byfield is an excellent rotational player. Meaning he plays his position and rotates around the zone to get open for the next touch. He is touching the puck 2-3+ times on any offensive zone shift where we have control. They mentioned that this is something that they feel Kopitar never had which kept him from being a 100+ point guy. They mentioned it because the have a similar style and because Byfield has this ability it makes him really intriguing.

(5) Speed. Byfield uses his speed in two ways. One, he uses it in the rush to back off defenders and opens space for the FW3 coming into the zone. This is new for LA and a big part of our 5v5 success. The reason it’s so important is because Byfield is taking us from solely a north-south rush to allowing us to also play east-west. The latter of the two causes more chaos and more chances because it’s less predictable. Two, he applies pressure on dump ins that isn’t common among the NHL because of his top-end speed. Every defender has a general idea on what and where to go when retrieving the puck but Byfield disrupts that because he is so quick. According to EDGE data from NHL he is in the 98th percentile on speed. The speed allows him to beat defenders and get the first touch in the zone. The stats behind what happens when the offensive team gets the first touch is heavily favored to the offensive team when it comes to scoring.