Rookie hitters

jake1

Registered User
Oct 8, 2002
451
330
Visit site
When Matt Smaby makes it to the NHL (perhaps not until 2007-08) for Tampa Bay, he'll play the same type of physical game Matt Greene demonstrated in Edmonton during their run.
 

ChemiseBleuHonnete

Registered User
Oct 28, 2002
9,674
0
I'll put in a vote for Luc Bourdon. With Vigneualt's stand em up at the blueline technique Luc will be given the green light.

Really? When Vigneault coached the habs, he hated when our players made open ice hits. He thought it was too risky and we never saw one open ice hit after Ulanov missed one of his.
 

One Winged Angel

You Can't Escape
May 3, 2006
16,531
3,454
Long Island
Bourret would be a good pick if he makes the Thrash

If he makes the team, Bourdon in Vancouver might dish out his share of hits

Brule ofcourse

Three very solid picks right there.

- Bourret's game reminds me of Pat Verbeek's, but not as polished.

- Luc Bourdon was VERY impressive at the 06 WJC, and the hometown crowd serenading him everytime he touched the puck was awesome. He made some big hits as well.

Although my boy Marc Staal did play better, hehe. :)

- I love Gilbert Brule. I saw clips of him at the CHL top prospects game where he had the hat and the assist, and he made some big hits in that game. He reminds me of Mark Recchi in his hay-day, but even more physical, at the center position. He is going to be one nasty player.


My choices would have to be those three as well, but I'm going to go with Alex Bourret if he plays. Brule has health problems, which might make him tone it down physically, and I don't see Bourdon going all out throwing open ice hits as a rookie. I think he'll settle down as well, at least until he gets comfortable at the NHL level.
 

rt

The Kinder, Gentler Version
May 13, 2004
96,890
45,263
A Rockwellian Pleasantville
The big rookie on my favourite team, if he still counts.

:shakehead

I see these kind of comments all of the time and I don't understand them. If you ask "who are the best defensive forwards in the league?", and you get people naming the best defensive forward from their home team, then you are still getting your question answered, aren't you? Everyone is obviously already aware of the Maddens and the Lehtinens of the league, I for one, find it interesting when I see some other names I wouldn't have precviously considered. The same goes for this thread.
 

Static

HFBoards Sponsor
Sponsor
Feb 28, 2006
47,236
33,065
SoCal
Shane O'Brien is pretty physical...200+PMs last year for the Pirates. Though a lot of those were of the dumb variety...
 

Rand

Registered User
Oct 17, 2002
9,426
0
AskMe
Had no idea that colaiacovo hit like that...good for him

He didn't... at least until last year. His play last season was dramatically different then ever before.
In the past he's never really been particularly physical at all, not soft either but he wasn't one to throw his weight around.

Whatever happened last season he was just pounding players on an almost nightly basis, he had a number of highlight reel hits.
He was definitely a much bigger impact physically then McCabe a guy who very much is a physical D-Man.

The question is if he will keep it up, it's possible he's added a new dimension to his game and if so that's tremdendously positive news and he'd undoubtedly become of most physical D-Man.
Given that he'd never shown anything remotely like that in past years he'll need to prove that is his real game, and not merely a rare occurance as it was an awfully sudden and dramatic turn around.
 

leafaholix*

Guest
He didn't... at least until last year. His play last season was dramatically different then ever before.
In the past he's never really been particularly physical at all, not soft either but he wasn't one to throw his weight around.

Whatever happened last season he was just pounding players on an almost nightly basis, he had a number of highlight reel hits.
He was definitely a much bigger impact physically then McCabe a guy who very much is a physical D-Man.

The question is if he will keep it up, it's possible he's added a new dimension to his game and if so that's tremdendously positive news and he'd undoubtedly become of most physical D-Man.
Given that he'd never shown anything remotely like that in past years he'll need to prove that is his real game, and not merely a rare occurance as it was an awfully sudden and dramatic turn around.

He played like that in the OHL.
 

Rand

Registered User
Oct 17, 2002
9,426
0
AskMe
He played like that in the OHL.

Not from what I can recall, and the scouting reports of the time don't really mention it at all.
He was a fairly smooth well rounded two-way D-Man, but the scouting reports didn't list it. His strongest strength defensively was generally considered his ability to read the developing play.

If he was that physical in the OHL, and dropped such an element from his game entirely he'd have been much more poorly regarded as a prospect to have shown such significant degredation in performance in the AHL.
 

leafaholix*

Guest
Not from what I can recall, and the scouting reports of the time don't really mention it at all.
He was a fairly smooth well rounded two-way D-Man, but the scouting reports didn't list it. His strongest strength defensively was generally considered his ability to read the developing play.

If he was that physical in the OHL, and dropped such an element from his game entirely he'd have been much more poorly regarded as a prospect to have shown such significant degredation in performance in the AHL.

Having watched him in the OHL, he played a similar game. The reason you didn't see the same game from him at the AHL level was the tremendous difference between the physical size and strength of the competition.

Only recently has he hit 200 lbs and he's been working on his strength, which was called into question when he was coming into the AHL.

It was a matter of adapting physically to the competition.
 

Leaf Army

Registered User
Jun 9, 2003
8,856
58
Leaf Nation
Visit site
If he was that physical in the OHL, and dropped such an element from his game entirely he'd have been much more poorly regarded as a prospect to have shown such significant degredation in performance in the AHL.

He threw a lot of nice hits in the AHL. I've always thought of him as a pretty physical player.
 

leafaholix*

Guest
He threw a lot of nice hits in the AHL. I've always thought of him as a pretty physical player.

True, but only recently has he been able to knock guys around, because he's gotten a lot stronger. I remember during the lockout season he was throwing his weight around against Jason Spezza, barely moving him. But he's always been physical.
 

vcx*

Guest
I second on Colaiacovo.

He laid down Bertuzzi, Guerin, and Comrie :) and was playing fearless..

Comrie is HUGE! :sarcasm:
Bertuzzi hit - not devasting, did stop him, i'll give him credit on that.
Guerin - i hate him, any kind of hit on said player is a-ok in my books.

I always thought Carlo was a more offensive defenseman, didn't know he had a mean hitting edge to him.
 

Colt.45Orr

Registered User
Mar 23, 2003
14,708
5,016
Canada
Karsums might not lead the league but he will lay out some pretty big open-icers.
Paille is another one to keep an eye on.
 

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad

-->