Why?
I mean i don't give a fig if we get Polak or Not - I doubt that will happen, but how can you not take seriously clearing the front of the net?
Because it doesn't happen nearly as much people think it does and when someone does dare to "clear the front of the net", it's a penalty because you know... interference. Some fans are still in the 80s/90s where you could literally hold someone with one hand to stop him from skating, or just hit someone in the net at will without any penalty.
What happens is that you want your defenseman to gain position, tie up sticks and obviously pick up rebounds and whatever else happens infront of a goaltender. You don't need to be a physical specimen per say to be able to do these things.
Pushing and shoving infront of a net isn't really clearing the crease and again, Polak isn't much better at doing that than anyone we currently have.
Polaks is a hard worker, he isn't a bad skater and does play a physical game, there's no doubting that. But he's out of position a lot, gets lost in the defensive zone and struggles horribly at moving the puck out of his zone.