Improving a player in Faceoffs

[MKoivuFan]

I am currently playing as an OHL team... Philip mcrae is a 5 in faceoffs is there a way i can get his faceoffs attribute higher because next season i wanna put him and my first round draft pick on the same line as the player im looking at is a RW

[Asbeen]

The only way I think, it's to make him practice his "defensive skills" in the practice regime. I don't know how much he can improve starting as low as 5 though.

[capschmap]

I've never had any luck with improving players' faceoff skills. I simply adjust, if your centre can't win faceoffs, shift him to the wing and get him to practice as a winger. Also, unless the player is very good, I don't bother drafting centres with very low faceoff ratings. If you can't win a faceoff as a centre, you're pretty much useless.

[Asbeen]

Sometimes you have a winger that he's better at faceoff than his center so in tactic I will make him do the faceoff but then he's back at his position so my center can still be a good center to deflect puck or being a good playmaker.

[timmy_t]

Asbeen is right, practicing Defensive skills intensely will help develop his Faceoff ability. I would also have him assigned as the forward taking faceoffs because "practice makes perfect."

[Firebird350]

Asbeen is right, practicing Defensive skills intensely will help develop his Faceoff ability. I would also have him assigned as the forward taking faceoffs because "practice makes perfect."

Really? For some reason I always thought faceoffs fell under the "offensive skills" category? Perhaps Ive been wrong this whole time.

I just always noticed that whichever centers I had practicing their offensive skills intensively, always showed a steady improvement in their faceoff attributes over time. It made sense to me, since a won faceoff equals possession of the puck, but I havent been playing this game as long as alot of people on this board.

[Aposiopesis]

Asbeen is right, practicing Defensive skills intensely will help develop his Faceoff ability. I would also have him assigned as the forward taking faceoffs because "practice makes perfect."

Really? For some reason I always thought faceoffs fell under the "offensive skills" category? Perhaps Ive been wrong this whole time.

I just always noticed that whichever centers I had practicing their offensive skills intensively, always showed a steady improvement in their faceoff attributes over time. It made sense to me, since a won faceoff equals possession of the puck, but I havent been playing this game as long as alot of people on this board.

Well, in general, a young or prime's abilities are going to improve in general over time as long as they're practicing medium or better in each area. If you specifically wanted to raise faceoffs at an accelerated rate, though, intense defensive skills should be in his regime the majority of the time.

As an above poster mentioned, if this is a player that's good enough to be in the lineup, and his other skills are ideally suited to a center, then perhaps match him up with a winger that's good on faceoffs (or a center that plays wing well).