Injury Report: Mark Fraser (knee) - ON LTIR, Oct 25 earliest return date

[Duffman955]

Fraser is the Leafs worst D if you play him over 20mins a game. He gets exposed by first and second liners because he's just too slow. Fraser does fine if we only play him 12-15mins a game and match him up against bottom sixers.

He plays better than both Ranger and Franson in his own end. Ill give him that.

When Franson is on the ice, you see at least 4-5 odd man rushes by the opposing team.

 

[mix1home]

I really don't get the hate, the guy is a +/- of +4, started out poorly but seems to have gotten a little better lately.

Franson has made alot of blunders as well, he just doesn't get hate because he is really good offensively.

theyre both bottom pairing guys playing like bottom pairing guys basically.

I think Ranger was like -3 in one single game - Chicago one. Other than that he was good defensively. What people see is that he creates problems for himself from time to time by either poor decision with te puck or by being out of position, but what people fail to acknowledge is that he usually recovers and blocks the shot if one is to come because of his mistake. This is skill as far as I concerned. And he definitely getting better with each game.

 

[JackJ]

Fraser is the Leafs worst D if you play him over 20mins a game. He gets exposed by first and second liners because he's just too slow. Fraser does fine if we only play him 12-15mins a game and match him up against bottom sixers.

Which is exactly what we need him for. Reunite Franson and Fraser as 5/6 and lets move on.

Phaneuf Gunnar
Gardiner Rielly
Fraser Franson

 

[CanadasTeam]

I'll repeat " Fraser was #2 overall in Hits (153) & #15 overall in Blocked Shots (102), #6 overall in +/- and #1 overall in PIMs by Dmen last season".

Pretty impressive indeed for a player playing 15 minutes a night to be among the league leading Dmen in defensive categories like hits and blocked shots, fighting majors etc.

What a perfect #6 dman now making just $1.2 mil and cap friendly to boot.

You have to wonder why Dmen playing many more minutes can not achieve the same results statistically he does when measuring defensive dmen abilities.

Impressive.

zeke?

 

[zeke]

ok, I'll shoot.

1) +/- is a useless stat, and PIM is a negative stat

2) Hits and blocks are nice, but are the least important of all the stats we can look at. Yes, we know Fraser is very tough and physical. Unfortunately, this doesn't make him good at hockey.

3) Let's look at the most important numbers:

2012-13 TOI

1. Phaneuf 25:10
2. Kostka 22:04
3. Gunnar 21:16
4. Gardiner 20:28
5. Franson 18:47
6. Liles 18:46
7. Holzer 18:30
8. O'Byrne 17:10
9. Fraser 16:57

Quality of Competition 12-13

1. Phaneuf +2.144
2. Gunnar +1.422
3. Holzer +1.343
4. Kostka +0.387
5. O'Byrne +0.235
6. Fraser -0.001
7. Liles -0.084
8. Gardiner -0.087
9. Franson -0.158


2013-14 TOI

1. Phaneuf 23:56
2. Franson 21:11
3. Gardiner 19:42
4. Ranger 19:41
5. Gunnar 19:23
6. Rielly 18:07
7. Fraser 12:03

2013-14 quality of competition

1. Phaneuf +3.010
2. Gunnar +2.794
3. Franson +0.963
4. Rielly +0.641
5. Ranger -1.547
6. Gardiner -1.755
7. Fraser -1.880


Fraser is used less and in a more sheltered role than anyone on the team, because he's not a good hockey player.

He does have one good quality - he can play a solid role on the PK. He's not a liability there.

But with our PK looking great without him, we don't even need him for that.

 

[Quiksilver*]

TOI for Fraser this year is skewed, 2 fights in the Montreal game and being injured in his second game take away from his ice time total.

 

[zeke]

Mark Masters @markhmasters
Leafs D pairings remain the same; Fraser, who is inching closer to a return from a knee injury, skating with Liles

 

[FlareKnight]

Jonas Siegel ‏@jonasTSN1050
Mark Fraser says he's ready to return. Randy Carlyle says he'll have decision to make on back-end.

 

[zeke]

Last 5gms:

1. D.Phaneuf 23:02
2. C.Franson 20:38
3. J.Gardiner 20:10
4. P.Ranger 19:41
5. C.Gunnar 18:53
6. M.Rielly 17:31

 

[zeke]

I asked mark masters what the parings in practice were today:


Mark Masters @markhmasters
Status quo. Fraser was skating with Liles.

 

[FlareKnight]

Last 5gms:

1. D.Phaneuf 23:02
2. C.Franson 20:38
3. J.Gardiner 20:10
4. P.Ranger 19:41
5. C.Gunnar 18:53
6. M.Rielly 17:31

I have to say the balance of ice time has been pretty nice. Mostly just like how Phaneuf hasn't been getting ridden into the ground with way too much icetime. He's really at his most effectiveness when he's playing reasonable minutes.

 

[jmart21]

I have to say the balance of ice time has been pretty nice. Mostly just like how Phaneuf hasn't been getting ridden into the ground with way too much icetime. He's really at his most effectiveness when he's playing reasonable minutes.

All the more reason for us to find a stable 2nd pairing.

I know there's lots of talk about how badly we need a No2 dman to play with him; but we need people to play behind him even worse; that's what'll help keep his minutes down.


Anyways, I would imagine Fraser will be quickly paired with Franson when he's back in the lineup in an attempt to try and re-kindle the success those 2 had together last year, as Franson hasn't been very good. I'd imagine Rielly comes out.

Phaneuf-Gunnar
Fraser-Franson
Ranger-Gardiner

 

[ACC1224]

Last 5gms:

1. D.Phaneuf 23:02
2. C.Franson 20:38
3. J.Gardiner 20:10
4. P.Ranger 19:41
5. C.Gunnar 18:53
6. M.Rielly 17:31

That seems to be a pretty good reflection of the current depth chart.

 

[pucci2001]

He plays better than both Ranger and Franson in his own end. Ill give him that.

When Franson is on the ice, you see at least 4-5 odd man rushes by the opposing team.

Every shift...

 

[Al14]

I think Ranger was like -3 in one single game - Chicago one. Other than that he was good defensively. What people see is that he creates problems for himself from time to time by either poor decision with te puck or by being out of position, but what people fail to acknowledge is that he usually recovers and blocks the shot if one is to come because of his mistake. This is skill as far as I concerned. And he definitely getting better with each game.

Blind hate for the sake of blind hate. Ranger has his warts, but, for the most part he's been improving every single game.

Franson needs to improve a great deal more than Ranger IMHO.

 

[Epictetus]

Fraser is now healthy.

Closed.