Ryan Malone has hands, can skate well enough that he can kill penalties and uses his body effectively in traffic areas. He's been a 20 goal scorer (or on pace for it) in the NHL every season.
Eric Tangradi has 1 goal in 40 games. There is the chicken/egg debate for ice-time and production, but it's quite evident to me Tangradi hasn't got the consistency that a top pro like Malone has in terms of positioning, puck skills and shot to be a top 6 NHL caliber forward.
And that's not meant to skewer Tangradi. NHL defensemen and goalies make it about impossible for Kevin Stevens type forwards to exist. Which is why everyone's always in pursuit of the next one.
Let's at least give Tangradi one full NHL season before we make statements like this. Malone's 1st season wasn't until age 24. Tangradi is 23. I'm not predicting him to be Ryan Malone, but I'm also not ready to write him off.
Not so sure those early 90's teams would won those Cups without Stevens. He scored huge goals, he was a leader, and he held guys accountable. If I remember, Stevens came out in the Boston papers and said the team would come back and win the series being down 2-0. He had a confidence, and it rubbed off on that team.
Stevens was my idol when I was a kid. 25 was even my number on pretty much every team I played on.
He even went as far as to say they'd win the series by winning 4 straight, and they did.
Let's at least give Tangradi one full NHL season before we make statements like this. Malone's 1st season wasn't until age 24. Tangradi is 23. I'm not predicting him to be Ryan Malone, but I'm also not ready to write him off.
The problem is that Malone was playing in College and was a go to guy there, with Pittsburgh it seems like Tangradi has zero confidence from the NHL coaching staff.
Malone spent 4yrs with SCS, in those 4yrs, he played 40 or so games and had a lot of time to bulk up and fix his game with longer off seasons. Malone also came into a Pens team that was probably going to throw him in the top 6 anyway because they were so desperate for help for offense, Tangradi is stepping on to a team that is an offensive power house boasting a 2 very good top 6 wingers and 2 of the best centers in the game. Bylsma also seems to have zero confidence in him doing anything worth while with skilled players, which sucks because the brief moment he was playing in the playoffs last year, he looked good.
When no one has confidence in you and they give you piss poor minutes with fringe guys like Adams and an energy prototypical 4th line center like Vitale, you aren't going to blossom into anything but what that role on that line needs.
Put a guy with skill with skilled players and let that side of his game develop, if he struggles, at worst, put him with Sutter and let his game rub off on him a little before he's ready to get back into the top 6.
Bylsma, while getting a crap load of praise for the run and then the Adams, is absolutely atrocious with dealing with rookie/young forwards.
Neal is not a bad comparison actually. Stevens was a bit more a freight train (and meaner) and Neal is more of a sniper but I get the comparison. Lucic is not a bad comparison either but Stevens was more skilled and significantly faster.
I was going to say Dustin Brown is the guy that reminds me of Kevin Stevens the most, but right handed shot instead of left.
Maybe it's been a while, but I don't recall Stevens being a "bull in a china shop." He played tough, and would finish a guy if he had a chance, but he wasn't like a Dustin Brown who will go head hunting. A lot of Artie's physical dimension was just because he was huge - 6'3, and probably around 235 in his heyday. He played how a winger had to back in the day...he'd take a beating in front, but he'd also give one.
He was definitely more physical, and more willing to mix it up than Neal seems to be, but he wasn't a Lucic either. Probably a combo of those two was Artie. With that being said, Artie was also not a fighter. He'd only fight a few times a year, where Lucic would fight every single game if he had a willing participant.
He even went as far as to say they'd win the series by winning 4 straight, and they did.
And he scored 4 goals and 4 assists in those 4 wins, including a 5 point game in Boston. But since he wasn't captain of the Rangers at the time, nobody in the hockey world really remembers that.
And he scored 4 goals and 4 assists in those 4 wins, including a 5 point game in Boston. But since he wasn't captain of the Rangers at the time, nobody in the hockey world really remembers that.
Haha... I was thinking the same thing. I want a Burgs jersey.
