You must remember that the true physical impact Johns could make is restrained now by the fact he plays in the wider Olympic size ice in college AND also by the fact tbe NCAA hockey rules prohibit fighting..together these factors do not allow him to show what he really could do as a physical hitter in smaller rinks and with the NHL encourgement to be nasty whn the strategy demands it such as in the more intense playoffs.. BUT even with that, unless 'syou are an impact open ice hitter like a Scot Stevens was, the Impact of a physical hitter to cause both dosruptove turnovers,fear,and intimidation PLUS actual potential to hurt guys and put them OUT with injury, it seems to me is MORE impactful when carried out by a forechecking forward smashing them into the boards in their (opponent's) zone than by a our dman trying to defend in our zone..Often such dmen dzone physical guys like a Chara can themselves be harrassed into turnovers and getting put off their game as we saw the Hawks do to him in the Cup Final..Therefore I see Johns value More as that winger erapon that comrs rushing in tosmash guys off pucks in our ozone, cause disruption and turnovers and Also able to protect his forward linemates from any abuse attempted on them or maybe he Takes Out the opposition player or players tryong that on our guys..In short if he does thrse tasks well it will be easiest to do as a forward at the start of his NHL career rather than worry about all the extra things an inexperienced dman must deal with at the NHL level...especially in the even more intense atmosphere of playoffs.. As a winger he has a lot less to do. .dzone reads and positioning and support switching and dpartner support and anticipation requirements to get to blocking position...it is all a much tougher set of tasks to learn to do well for any newbie dman entering the nhl...more so on playoffs when the speed and intensity ramp up even more...So I cannot see Q employing him this year in playoffs with so little experience as a pro dman as a dman thrown to the eolvesright away..much easier to use him strategically as a winger and perhaps with limited minutes...used only on certain shifts to change something...the momentum...or get a goal off some disruption in the ozone off a forecheck causing turnovers by the opposition..that kond of strategic impact..or to just remind opponent's not to attempt abusing our stars..Uses like that without worrying about mistakes from a much more difficult dman postion..Next year..after training camp and pre-season tests as a dman, Q can then judge whether Johns is ready for a regular dman role and whether he deserves that role more than any other dman we have tryong to win that job...Kostka,Dahlbeck...whatever..My point is there are other dmen Q can use but nobody except McNeill...maybe..who can be that missing physical force winger we will need...especially in playoffs..so IF...and I said IF...Q decides he will insert Johns into his lineup in playoffs..then winger is more probable as his position for this year's playoffs..ratherthan Q risking on Johns not to make mistakes as most rookie dmen do starting out in the NHL..just a more logical assumption,I would think.
