I honestly have tried to avoid bringing up Owen Power the last few months of the season. There are strong beliefs on both sides of the spectrum. People are dug in to their beliefs, with little willingness to change.

At the beginning of this season, Power was not playing up to the standard you’d expect from him. There were too many mistakes in the defensive zone, and he wasn’t involved enough offensively. Poor puck decisions were creeping into his game as he lost confidence. I understood the frustration some were having back in the first month of the season.

The last month and a half, however, he has returned to being an impact player. It’s not coming from the offensive side of his game, which I expected; it’s coming in the defensive zone.

Utilizing His Size

The biggest complaint you hear from the “haters” is that he’s 6’6″ and doesn’t use his size to his advantage. Coming out of the University of Michigan, if you watch him play at all, you know he wasn’t going to be a hitter. That’s not his game and never will be.

Not being a player who consistently throws body checks is one thing. Not utilizing his size to lean on players against the wall, on entries, and in front of the net is not acceptable at the NHL level. That is the area where we needed to see improvement.

From what I’ve observed, that’s started to show up. One of my biggest criticisms of Power going back to college was his unwillingness to consistently use his reach as an asset in the defensive zone. I’m not sure who on the Sabres coaching staff got through to him, but it’s happening a lot more. It has enabled him to disrupt opportunities.

The clip below shows him pushing Nick Suzuki out of the front of the net and then following him into the slot. He uses his reach to get his stick in front of the puck, preventing Suzuki from getting a shot off. He proceeds to knock the puck off his stick and skates it out of trouble into the neutral zone.

The 23-year-old defender also tended to back too deep, allowing the forward to penetrate the zone and have a shooting opportunity. Now, he’s doing a better job closing out entries against and using either his reach or just closing players off on the wall.

I feel as though his play around and behind the net has improved, as he has become a more physical player. There’s still room to grow, of course. For example, he didn’t do a good enough job protecting the back post on the game-winning goal by the Florida Panthers the other night.

Still, there has been more consistent play in the defensive zone, with a greater willingness to use his size. The clip below is one such example where he uses his body to separate Marcus Foligno from the puck.

His most important skill set as a defenseman has remained at an elite level. Power is one of the better exit and transition defensemen in the league. You can see below in All Three Zones tracking data how well he continues to grade out in that regard.

It’s such an undervalued asset by some people. His ability to get the puck out of the zone, not only with his passing, but also by skating it out of the defensive zone and into the offensive zone, is highly impactful. Power is the best on the team in Corey’s tracking data for center lane passes.

It primarily comes from attacking on the rush through the middle of the ice and distributing the puck, an attacking approach that has shown to create higher-quality chances.

The Numbers

All of this has added up to Power having respectable defensive numbers at 5 on 5 in most public models. He has the second-lowest on-ice goals against per hour on the team at 5 on 5 among defenders to log at least 200 minutes.

In Evolving Hockey’s model, he’s third among defensemen in 5 on 5 on-ice expected goal share at 52%, first in shot share, and third in goal differential. The twins also have him leading all defensemen on the team in on-ice shot quality, but third-lowest in shot quality against.

Hockeyviz grades him out as one of the more impactful players on the roster this season when it comes to 5 on 5 shot rates in Micah’s expected goal model.

The production levels are on pace for career lows this season. You’d like to see more in that regard. His on-ice offensive numbers have trended upward, but not from a point perspective. I’ll take the one-year step back if it means there’s a better defensive player here.

I also found it interesting that Lindy Ruff is deploying Power this season in both defensive and offensive zone starts. In past years, he was deployed more offensively.

This is a clear sign that Ruff has more confidence in his young defensemen to be relied upon in defending situations. The Sabres’ head coach has leaned heavily on his top four defensemen to play a lot of significant minutes over the last quarter of the season.

For the first time in a long while, the Sabres have a legitimate top four. It has catapulted them into being able to hold leads late in games and has improved them overall as a defensive team. They also have four defensemen who fit very well into Ruff’s offensive-zone attack system.

It’s why I get confused when some fans seem eager to get away from it so quickly. At some point, it may come down to a decision on Power or Bowen Byram, who I’ll get to in the next day or so. That decision, if they have to make it, is down the road.

While you may see some people tell you it’s easy to replace a defenseman that plays over 22 minutes on a nightly basis in all situations, it’s false. Teams are constantly searching to put together a young top four, such as the Sabres have blossomed into right now.

Power is starting to round out his game as he approaches the career peak period for defensemen, which begins around 24 or 25 years old. There will be hiccups along the way, as we’ve seen with Rasmus Dahlin and Mattias Samuelsson. It’s part of the development process, but it’s good to see he’s back on the upward trend again.

Data via: Evolving Hockey, Hockeyviz, and All Three Zones

Photo Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images