Ballard
 

Found this when looking at something regarding Toronto's signing of Finger. Ballard is #1 in the league in quality of competition last year.

Put that together with Zherdev and Fritcsch going for Tyutin and Backman and the Olli deal looks very smart. Rather have Ballard, Boynton and Robak. Also, considering we picked up Stillman to replace Olli, it looks even smarter.


It’s worth noting that when James Mirtle ranked the available d-men based on Quality of Competition, Kurt Sauer was #2 among all available players behind Adam Foote (who didn’t make it onto the market). Looking at all defenders in the league using Gabriel Desjardins' numbers on behindthenet.ca , Sauer’s Quality of Competition trailed only Ballard, Lidstrom, Morris, Hejda, Foote, Mitchell and Clark and tied with Kuba, Hamhuis, Phillips, Bouwmeester and Ranger.

Link?

ehh idk but I think I'd rather have Zherdev on offense than the defensemen we got, but when you look at the total of everything we've done, the culture in the room looks to be much improved, and our overall team quality is better than it was.

Yeah, Ballard is going to help Jaybo tremendously with the ice time. I expect a big year from Jaybo because he will be fresher when he is on the ice and can focus a bit more on his offense and jumping up on the rush! I kinda expect a simular year to what Green had for Washington last year from him!

Here are the league quality of competition numbers for 2007-08. Ballard had a very strong season playing with Derek Morris

Wow did that video make me feel good... He seems to fight the better players (Lecavalier, Iginla, Perry), must really get on their nerves! He had some great Kronwall like open ice hits too... But really what most impressed me was the type of goals he was getting in that video, seems like he really knows how to follow the play forward and has a great shot, I am excited :handclap:

Ballard got an honorable mention for best check:



Why doesn't Phaneuf get called for jumping off his feet for EVERY check?

Because he plays for a Canadian team and Cherry likes him.