You realize Koivu fits that description I bolded right? Let's not jump to such conclusions about Perreault. I mean if we hadn't acquired him he would have been waived and sent to Hershey. He may very well be more of a Todd Marchant than an Andy McDonald. We didn't acquire him to step into a big role. If he plays his way into one great, but he's not slotted there by any means.
Koivu did ok when used in the second line role when initially coming to the ducks, and everyone was surprised when his production more or less stayed the same with a minor loss in this shortened while getting "demoted" to the third line. As always, I value playoff games more than anyone on this board it seems. When asked to go even with Pavel Datysuk he neither contributed offensively or did a particularly good job defensively.
I felt like last year the biggest weakness on the Anaheim team is the ability to contain an elite level scoring line, and using koivu strictly as a high-energy, high compete shield against that is about the only way I can see that the team did anything to address this.
The Ice time for centers in game 7 is as follows: Getzlaf 24:23, Bonino 17:20, Koivu 13:54, Steckel 7:25. Steckel was basically only used for faceoffs and his wingers got shifts with lines 1-2 in a revolving door. Having a 4th line that could log more minutes and actually stay together as a group would be good. Having the third line and fourth line close together at 10-12 minutes would be good.
I just don't see using Perreault in a near worthless role would beneifit anyone when we have such a logjam at forward. My only conclusion is that Perreault is going to get a significant role that Murray didn't trust to Holland, or Bonino is going to get traded very soon.