Quoting: jnowariak
Right, but I’m not sold on what “skill” is. I think both are great play drivers but I don’t think you necessarily need skill to do that. This is the first time I saw the term heavy skill and I thought of guys like Buch, Landeskog, and Tkachuck.
Devils are a very young team, especially at forward.
We have a lot of perimeter/transition ability to gain possession, enter zone, create scoring chance.
We want to extend those possessions into multiple chances (either via greasy goals near crease or my winning the puck back in corners).
"Heavy Skill" is a term our GM uses to describe the elements needed to prolong offensive pressure or capitalize on scoring chances.
We have often been near bottom of league in tips, deflections, scoring on rebounds. Think, Chris Kreider. Or maybe JvR in his prime, or Patric Hornqvist on Pens.
We also have one line (Wood/Vesey -- McLeod -- Bastian) that forechecks well and cycles in o-zone.
Our best puck retrievers in top-9 (Hischier, Bratt, Mercer) are guys we want making/finishing plays. So we need a couple of guys to dig pucks out of corners.
Hope that helps.