BruinDust
Registered User
- Aug 2, 2005
- 24,365
- 21,810
I honestly don't think he's been that bad. He's shown a lot of effort and has been pretty physical.
I really don't think he's been that bad either. Obviously his contract is horrendous and he's not worth close to it, but he's been pretty physical and has been skating pretty well. Who else are we going to put in who's going to do better in a 3rd/4th line role? I'd give him some more time and try to find a good line for him. We're stuck with his contract for a few years, if he can hustle, play physical, and pitch in on offense every once in a while, then it's manageable. They won't have a problem benching him if he starts playing poorly, though.
He is skating better, he's no speedster but there is a quicker step to his game.
And he's hustling and being physical, he almost killed Kempe last night coming behind the net in the Coyote zone.
He put the work in over the summer to slim down and get quicker, exactly what they asked of him to do.
If he didn't do that, or wasn't doing the things like skating quicker and being physical, I'd say be done with him.
I think he's earned some more time here to see if he can up his production.
Even if he can pop a dirty one, a goal at this stage would probably do wonders for his confidence.