Center or wing? Tomas Nosek’s position for upcoming season still uncertain

By Justin Emerson

Monday, Sept. 23, 2019 | 2 a.m.

Tomas Nosek knows what position he’d like to play. It’s the same position where he thinks he’s most valuable. It’s a different position from the one he’s played with the Vegas Golden Knights over the last two years.

Vegas has been stacked at center since its inception, forcing it to keep Nosek on the wing. In the Golden Knights’ first season, William Karlsson, Erik Haula, Cody Eakin and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare centered their respective lines.

Last season, Paul Stastny took Haula’s spot. But this year there’s no set fourth-line center. With Bellemare having left for Colorado in free agency, there’s an opening next to Ryan Reaves and William Carrier that Nosek hopes to fill.

“I’ve been playing center for my whole life,” Nosek said. “When I came here there were a lot of great centers here so I had to move to the wing and adjust my game a little bit, so I would say centerman is a better position.”

Nosek has transitioned between the two positions seamlessly. He said outside of taking faceoffs, which is the biggest difference between center and wing, that focusing on his play in the defensive end was the most crucial part of switching to center.

But those faceoffs shouldn’t be ignored.

It’s an admittedly small sample, but Nosek won 82 of his 132 faceoffs last year, a 62.1 percent rate that ranked tops in the NHL among players who registered at least 20 draws. His career mark going into last season was 53.9 percent, meaning it wasn’t entirely a fluke.

“Even when I was playing on the wing, I was taking faceoffs in practice,” Nosek said.

Nosek has scored 33 points in 152 career games, so he’s hardly a scoring maven. He’s more proficient in his own zone, and particularly on the penalty kill. The Golden Knights allowed only 35 high-danger chances by opponents when Nosek was on the ice short-handed, lower than the totals allowed by fellow penalty-killers Bellemare, Eakin and Ryan Carpenter.

He’s a strong defender regardless of his position, and it’s not as if he’s been totally shut out of playing center in Vegas.

He spent time in the middle when necessary last year, including during Game 7 of the playoff series against the Sharks when Bellemare was out with an injury.

“I played against (Nosek) first in the American (Hockey) League and he was a center and he was an absolute stud as a center,” Carrier said. “He can play there. It’s not like you’re throwing a winger there and telling him to play center.”

Right now, Nosek figures to be either the third-line left wing or fourth-line center. The center job could depend on the play of Nicolas Roy, who could also earn the spot.

There are even more candidates vying for the third-line wing opening with Brandon Pirri, Valentin Zykov and Cody Glass all potential options.

“I think he’s a guy that can bounce back and forth,” coach Gerard Gallant said. “Do I have a preference? I don’t care, wherever I need him.”

“I don’t see a big difference between any of the three (forward) positions. He might feel more comfortable at one. I’m guessing he likes center a lot better.”

Gallant’s guess is correct. Nosek has openly shared his desire to play center, but he’s also shown he can succeed anywhere. That makes him a valuable asset for the Golden Knights regardless of his position.

“I think he’s a heck of a player,” Eakin said. “Wherever he’s going to play is going to be effective for us.”