The building blocks must be established at the youth level in order to set a player up for future success.

For this edition of The Breakdown, we go back to last Summer’s TCS Live, where Dave Starman presented on the characteristics that define an effective defenceman in the today’s game.

In the presentation, Starman breaks down what he looks for in defencemen into seven building blocks:

• Deception/determination
• Effective
• Forward
• Explosive
• Nasty
• Stickwork
• Efficient

He believes those building blocks must be established at the youth level in order to set a player up for future success.

“What can we do to lengthen the track and put the building blocks in to make sure that these kids get a really good early education, physically and mentally, so that when the concepts at the older levels start to take over, we can see some of the progress.”

Watch as Starman takes you through how the likes of Cale Makar, Charlie McAvoy and Devon Toews are providing the blue print for the modern defenceman.