Power among young defenseman playing big minutes while developing in NHL

The Coaches Room is a regular feature throughout the 2022-23 regular season by former NHL coaches and assistants who will turn their critical gaze to the game and explain it through the lens of a teacher. Mark Recchi and Phil Housley will take turns providing insight.
In this edition, Housley, a Hall of Fame defenseman who coached the Buffalo Sabres and was an assistant with the Nashville Predators and Arizona Coyotes, discusses the impact young defensemen are having and the keys to their adjustment to the NHL.

When you look around the NHL, a lot of young defensemen are playing big minutes.
Rasmus Dahlin of the Buffalo Sabres is playing 25:54 per game. Cale Makar, who won the Norris Trophy as the top defenseman in the NHL last season with the Colorado Avalanche, is averaging 26:00. And Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks is averaging 26:15.
There are a lot of different ways these players have come in and had major impacts and some of them have taken a little bit longer in their development. Some matured through development whether it was in college, such as Makar (University of Massachusetts Amherst) and Hughes (University of Michigan), or the American Hockey League.
Others have been put in place in the NHL where they're going to live and die with the mistakes and, hopefully, they can develop that way and build confidence.
You can see Dahlin is really coming into his own. He has 15 points (seven goals, eight assists) in 11 games. He's 22 years old, but he's in his fifth NHL season. Hughes, 23, also is in his fifth season, and Makar, 24, is in his fourth season.

The NHL is a tough league for defensemen, and they always say you don't really reach your pinnacle until you're 25. It takes that long to get adjusted to the speed, to the process of reading situations defensively and, more importantly, just knowing the personnel that you're playing against.
That takes time and some experience just knowing the ins and outs of what players are thinking and what they do in certain situations. There's a lot to process as a defenseman and then on top of it, having to add to the attack, add to the rush, which is prevalent in the game today.
You hear coaches talking about getting that fourth guy, maybe that fifth guy, in the attack on the transition.
The first thing I did when coaching a young defenseman was tell him, "Don't do what I did, do what I say," because I was on the attack all the time. But I think as a defenseman you're there to defend.
If you protect your end, you're sound defensively, you're not a defensive liability, all the other things and avenues will open up offensively. You don't have to force the game. You allow the game to come to you. You'll know when to jump and when you've got to go and when maybe you can take a risk.
You've got to allow these guys to play the game and allow them to make mistakes. You just want to limit the ones that result in giving up odd-numbered situations.
But I really was excited to let these guys go. You've got to loosen the reins. You've got to let these guys play. These guys are terrific players, especially in the game today, so my advice was "Just be sound defensively."
It's very rare when a player can come in and have a major impact right away. I'm not saying he can't, but as far as the defensive position, you know the players have skill, they have great hockey IQ, and they can make plays.
Sabres 19-year-old rookie Owen Power is learning this now. I saw Power a little bit at the end of last season, and I was impressed with his range and his command that he had on the ice. He's a terrific skater for being such a big guy (6-foot-6, 218 pounds).
He reminds me of a Rod Langway-type. He's really good on both sides of the puck. He's big, he's rangy, he can be physical, he can box out really well. He has all those attributes to become a big star in this league.
What Moritz Seider did with the Detroit Red Wings last season, getting 50 points (seven goals, 43 assists) in 82 games and winning the Calder Trophy as the top NHL rookie as a 20-year-old, was impressive. I think with the rebuild in Detroit, he was allowed to play his game.

Obviously, the team had struggles. That was part of the development of the rebuild, but Seider had a huge impact on the penalty kill and power play, playing in all situations.
It's a credit to him the way he handled it because it's a grind. A lot of the young guys will tell you that.
Every game is important, and every game is an opportunity. You're going to have your ups and downs, but I think if you can stay even keeled and not get too high or too low and just be consistent, that is going to help in his development to become a much better player.
Every year brings different circumstances and different expectations. You can have a great season the year before and you come in and you think you're going to pick up where you left off and then all the sudden your team might struggle, or you might struggle.
Those are valuable lessons to learn to make sure that you can be consistent every season. Sometimes that's trial-and-error experience.
As a defenseman, you are going to make mistakes no matter who you are. You're probably going to get beat one-on-one during the year. So, it's just getting over those and trying to erase them and get back for the next shift.
The guys that do that well, that's the reason they are stars in this league.