Still trying to figure out why I am forced to play center in online versus

Face offs are a huge advantage. You can position lock to a winger or a defender but you’d be stuck only at the player at that position. That would get you out of taking faceoffs. 

That being said… I highly suggest trying to learn faceoffs because it’s a huge advantage. If you leave it up to your AI to win/loose draws it’s fairly easy to beat the AI if someone somewhat knows what they’re doing in the dot and you’ll be fighting for the puck after every draw.