Everybody in the NHL wants to get tougher to play against, but will anybody do it correctly?

Plus some more pre-free agency thoughts on the players whose contracts might not pan out as expected or hoped.

There is a very common theme developing around the NHL this offseason. Everybody wants to get “tougher to play against.”

• Kyle Dubas reportedly wants the Penguins to be tougher to play against.

• Being tougher to play against is a common theme around the Dallas Stars.

• The Buffalo Sabres want to be tougher to play against.

• Vancouver Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin says every team in the NHL wants to get tougher to play against.

Those are just a few examples. If you read through the offseason outlooks for pretty much every team in the NHL the words “tougher,” “play,” and “against” all make pretty common appearances within the same sentence. Sometimes it is from a team executive speaking on the record, and sometimes it is simply a writer coming to that conclusion on their own (or on background).

It’s not a coincidence.

For one, given the physical nature of the sport there is always going to be an interest for teams to play tough, especially as they get into the playoffs. The playoffs are always hyped as being tougher, and whether it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy or a naturally occurring thing that happens, teams want and need some of that come playoff time.

But the bigger driving force behind this push right now is almost certainly the copycat nature of the league where everybody tries to model the team that is winning most at the current time.

That team right now is the Florida Panthers, one of the most physical, aggressive and aggravating teams in the NHL. Between Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett and Brad Marchand they assembled one of the most easily hatable rosters in the league, while also becoming the gold standard for success over the past four years with a Presidents’ Trophy win followed by three consecutive Stanley Cup Final appearances and back-to-back Stanley Cup wins.

Rival teams are going to look at them bullying opponents all over the ice and immediately jump to the conclusion of, “that’s what we need to do to beat them.”

Maybe to a point they do.

But as is always the case when we are talking about more abstract mindsets (tougher to play against, faster, more skilled, etc.) there is a danger in taking the wrong lessons away from the team that is successful playing that way.

When the Pittsburgh Penguins were winning the Stanley Cup in the mid-2010s with a fast, skilled team, it would have been easy for teams to try and duplicate that approach by trying to get faster (and a lot of teams did).

But the Penguins didn’t just win because they had a bunch of fast guys. They had a bunch of fast guys that were also incredibly skilled and pretty good defensively. They had other hockey traits beyond just skating fast in a straight line. A team that stockpiled a bunch of Rico Fata clones wasn’t going to find that same sort of success.

It is a similar story with the Panthers.

The Panthers are not the best team in the NHL just because they have a bunch of big meatheads that hit people and push players around.

Their “tough to play against” guys are also insanely skilled hockey players.

Matthew Tkachuk is tough to play against. He’s also one of the best players in hockey and an MVP-level scorer.

Brad Marchand is tough to play against. He’s also a borderline Hall of Fame player that’s been one of the best two-way players in the league for more than a decade.

Sam Bennett is tough to play against. He’s also a legitimate top-six forward that can score 25 goals.

They are tough. They are also damn good hockey players and incredibly productive hockey players that do a lot of other things well.

That’s the key and the balance teams have to strike when assembling their rosters.

Toughness and size for the sake of toughness and size doesn’t do jack shit for your hockey team. There has to be another skill or trait to go along with it. Can you score some goals? Are you a good playmaker? Can you make a good outlet pass out of the zone to push possession? Can you actually defend and prevent the other team from getting into your zone? What else can you do beyond just checking people and throwing your weight around?

I am not sure every team is going to take that lesson away from the Panthers, and we might already be seeing that unfold this offseason.

Let’s talk about Nicolas Hague and the Nashville Predators, as well as some other early pre-free agency thoughts.