This. A million times, this!
Anaheim only used Grant as a middle 6 player because they are a bad team, especially up front. Grant is a 4th line player on any playoff team.
wait, wait, wait......they did not use him as a middle 6 player.
Getzlaf, Henrique and Steel have been their top 3 centers. And listening to Ducks fans, the 4th line took on the hard matchups and sheltered the 3rd line centered by Steel giving them the easiest matchups. Realistically, what we SHOULD have done this year with Frost....but that's another discussion.
Let's look at ES TOI/Game for those centers:
Getzlaf: 15:40
Hentique 13:57
Steel 13:36
Grant 10:39
And in fact, Grant's toi/game is the 3rd worst out of any player to play a game on the Ducks this year.
So to say he was used as a middle 6 player is wrong. So out of 19 players that have played at least a game with the Ducks, only 2 played less at ES. Who played less? Rowney(10:18) and Deslauriers(9:41).
Oh....and speaking of Row and Desl, let's look Grant's most common linemates at ES:
Rowney 428 minutes
Deslauriers 287 minutes
Max Jones is the next highest F he has played with, and played with him 53 minutes
So it should be 100% CLEAR that Grant has played #4C all year with the 2 least used players. In NO WAY did he play middle 6. He "may" have played more minutes than some other 4th lines given game situations and facing top lines more. And that looks to be the case in which his most common Dmen he has played with is Lindholm and Fowler.
So he didn't have much help production wise from his wingers and in Philly, he will play with better guys. He also likely gets easier matchups. So those 2 things "could" offset his high S% that likely comes down. So while he may score less with us, we might see his assists go up.
But in the end, how he does on the ice with us will determine everything. He...and others know they must play well or they could be the one sitting while Farabee plays. We have internal competition, options, and good depth for the 1st lime in a long time. And when Farabee gets in, he will need to show he should not be the next one to get scratched. I said it before, scratch someone like JVR for a game and that will get his attention and maybe these pointless streaks that go 7/8 games will start ending at 2/3.
And for the 100th time, we will have injuries. It will be a war or attrition so all these guys will play...and should play.
Oh yeah, just win.....and
go Hagg.