Quote:
Originally Posted by ponder
Re: the Leafs, I don't expect us to dress a heavyweight on a regular basis this year. Our centres will be Bozak, Grabo, and two of Connolly/McClement/Steckel, zero fighting there. Our wingers will probably be something like Kessel, Lupul, JVR, Mac, Kulemin, Kadri, Frattin and Brown. Brown is really the only fighter there, with guys like Lupul or Mac dropping them in an absolute pinch, but not on any sort of regular basis.
On d we should have two big guys who can hit (Phaneuf and Komi), as well as a softer big guy (Franson), but no fighters. Phaneuf and Komi will drop them once in awhile, but neither are very good at it.
Overall we'll likely be one of the worst fighting teams in the league, maybe the worst period (again, assuming we don't dress guys like Orr or Rosehill on a regular basis, which I think is a safe assumption). In terms of hitting we'll be a bit below average, but not bad. Phaneuf is one of the better hitters in the league, Komi is quite a good hitter too, Brown loves to play physical, Frattin can really lay guys out when he does hit (which wasn't often enough in his rookie year, but hopefully that changes). Guys like JVR, Steckel, Franson, Bozak, Lupul, McClement, etc. will all hit a bit too, though none are anything close to being punishing players.
We definitely lost some toughness on d by trading Schenn (meh fighter, great hitter) and Aulie (good fighter, good hitter). I didn't disagree with either trade, but purely from a toughness point of view we should be a bit softer than last year, and we were already one of the softest teams in the league.
|
Steckel can fight and he put up 170 registered hits. The guy is 6'5. He throws his weight and someone is mad at him, he'll probably go with them.