welcome to episode 57 of the lone hockey podcast where today we're going to be talking about Cole Coffield from the mreal Canadians and obviously Cole Coffield is a very fascinating player I love watching him I love watching him score goals and how well he's been able to Trend in terms of goal scoring and how much better he's even continued to improve as a power skater in terms of power skating mechanics as well Co Outfield when you talk about the overall makeup of his game it's more reliant on his goals than his passing and defense he's not a defensive player not in the PK and he's not much of a passer either so the thing is with him you want to rely on his goals as much as possible and really put him in situations where he can Thrive as a goal scorer and that's what Marty s he was able to do last year he had a really good year last year and he's going to continue to get better heading in the future signed a big contract now as well like a lot of these young players and a lot of these young key rfas and so with cyfield like I mentioned you're getting a player who can really score he's really productive at even strength offense his finishing value is so high and then his goals for 60 in terms of how he's able to generate actual output on that is really remarkable and that's what really adds to his winds above replacement value and how much better compared to and relative to other forwards in the league he is at wins above replacement it's not based on his defense and his passing it's solely pretty much Reliant upon on his goal scoring ability and the quality of the competition that he's facing as well because he's scoring goals and he's scoring goals also against elite players so Outfield is Elite generating quality and quantity within his shots and that's the thing when you notice his game and you really watch his games how he can create from interior space but he can shoot from any angle anywhere inside the offensive zone doesn't really matter where he's positioning so with cyfield he's a key sniper a player who can like I said he can snipe pucks from any angle he can pick a pocket really well and he can score high he can score low you can score mid on goali is you can find little openings that other players cannot especially helps given that he's a smaller player because another player like him is Alex Brink who's the most similar to cyfield in that sense but when you look at cyfield and how overall skilled he is as a goal scorer and how agile he is as a smaller player that really links together and those two really linked together really well because if he was a bigger player he didn't have as much coordination he wouldn't be able to pick those pockets as well when he's versus being the smaller player where he's able to understand those pockets of space and be able to wire pucks home through there and he's really Nifty he's become more Nifty and I noticed this at Wisconsin in terms of his power skating mechanics and his Puck skills diversifying his Puck skills he showed a little bit more playmaking ability at Wisconsin compared to where he is now and now he's just mainly a goal scorer than anything else but at Wisconsin wasn't afraid to pass either wasn't afraid to Showcase his passing ability a little bit more could do some really nice saucer dishes and be able to feed guys on the tape in terms of his teammates and with his power skating when he was with the ntdp was one of the one of the bigger struggles for him because that's the other thing he wasn't a big player already but his separating skill was a shot and everybody knew that and he didn't necessarily skate super well and he didn't necessarily pass a lot so which one would you want to add if you're cyfield at that time for him you could still pass you could still be relying on your teammates but take the shot when you can and be able to take as many shots as possible and so because of that best thing to improve upon would be his skating because they improve a lot of other details within his game if he improved his passing and didn't improve his skating it would have been interesting to see how that would have trended for him at Wisconsin if that would have affected anything but with calfi what's really interesting about him is the linear crossover has really improved when he was at Wisconsin and the linear Crossovers and the buildup of speed and the agility that he has on both his outside edges he looks like a little horse when he's Galloping sometimes because he's so fluid he's so quick so agile with his power skating mechanics and his outside edges now compared to where he used to be about fiveish years ago and he's improved a whole lot in terms of skating that's the biggest thing I've noticed biggest difference I've noticed C Field's game is his skating his footwork his ability to cut back and that's really allowed him Transformers goal scoring a little bit more as well because you add to the skating elements and then you add to the goal scoring elements because it allows you to cut back a little bit allows you to create space a little bit better it allows you to Pivot on the dime a little bit better it allows you to play a little bit more freely when you have the puck so you're in coordination with not only your hands but also your feet and so with cyfield he was able to link together those two and put together more sequences where he was scoring a lot more frequently and at higher success and when he was able to create a lot more space for himself because of that cutback ability and use his feet more often and using his feet in a good manner sometimes with the mtdp it would be a little bit choppy like he would still be able to score effortlessly it didn't really matter who he's playing against but when you watch his skating you could see that sometimes when you try to create a little pull and drag release or something he wouldn't necessarily be able to create maximum space for himself because of the lack of skating the lack of gear change the lack of shiftiness within his feet and his edges and that hurt him a little bit in terms of being able to shoot on angles and being able to shoot inside deception but he improved it at Wisconsin and they built upon it and layered upon it in his brief in the AHL and then obviously consistently in the NHL now and cyfield a player who really likes to use that tow drag release the pull and drag release he can shoot in many different ways as well he can shoot from afar he can shoot up close but he's more of a threat when he's shooting away from his body compared to when he's shooting close he gets a lot more power on his shots and a lot more velocity on shots when he's shooting away from his body and slightly to the side like most players do versus when you think of a player like Austin matth he can almost shoot from a stand still and that has to do with physical strength than anything else but with cyfield he's really really slick at being able to shoot from his hit pocket area and really really sick at being able to shoot from different angles to the side of his body and he's very effective at doing that and it's really allowed him sustain success as a scorer and and he'll Eclipse 40 goals one day in the NHL it's going to be sooner or later and it's only a matter of time when he's able to hit that Mark then cyfield what's really interesting about in time this back to the skating elements too it's really helped him in Ozone sequencing as well being able to extend possessions on the wall inside the off Zone being able to use deception in his feeld a little bit more you see a little bit more Mohawk pivots 10 and twos from him on occasion so he's able to use some big interception within his feet and so Kyle Field is a player who can really utilize a lot of different foundational skills he understands how to use his feet he understands how to use his hand he understands how to shoot again the passing the defense that those two things that can still be worked upon over time he's not necessarily going to be a player when he's 30 you're still going to be talking about those elements per se but certainly he can improve like any player can and there's a lot more layers to his game than just the lack of passing and the lack of Defense he has a lot of shooting mechanics a lot of power play opportunity he's facing Elite competition there's a lot of different advantages that he has you want to keep him in that lineup and keep him in that Top Line role consistently that's really gonna allow him to get to 40 goals eventually because he's not going to be a player that you want to have as a third line checking forward per se and you want him to have as much ice as possible take as much ice time as possible and be able to score as much as possible and be able to win games as much as possible so howfield you want to continue to have his shooting be the main focal point of his game and the main staple on his game which really can allow him to evolve and get better over time in the NHL as well