Online freezes a LOT less than offline, at least for me...
I'm primarily a center by trait and I burned a LOT of my Defensive XP for my Center loadout to max Faceoffs at 99, my wingers are very evenly leveled stats all across the board. I'm not the cherry picker type, I'm really defensively committed (hence the two-way forward selection) so I like to have high body checking, stick checking, defensive awareness, etc.
Only one you don't want to play when you're new Jornna is Goalie, even if you've done Goalie offline in past years' editions. Goalie has an INSANE learning curve in terms of playing skill for online-mode and is much harder to level up and unlock boosts for, stats-wise. Not to mention when you do "Drop In Games" (random games with strangers when your dedicated club team isn't online), every mother fucker on your team is going to bad mouth you after every goal and tell you to quit and go kill yourself, even if it wasn't your fault. The defensemen could both charge the net in the other team's end and give up a 3 on 0 breakaway and god help you "YOU FUCKING SUCCESSFUL HOMOSEXUAL-AMERICAN WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP THAT, A GOALIES JOB IS TO BE BETWEEN THE PUCK AND NET, YOUR MOM SHOULDVE ABORTED YOU."
XI Wiki

