Has a "soft" player ever toughened up and played hard?

[BigKing]

Laperriere was never a "soft" player, but he was known as a hit-and-run guy and a spot-picker at the start of his career.

He flipped a switch in 98-99 and started fighting more in general along with better competition. Went on to lead the league in fights the following season, going on to a long career that ended with him being dubbed one of the real warriors of the NHL and one of the last of his kind upon retirement.

The difference in the amount of respect he had at the start of his career and at the end is pretty massive.

 

[Mad Brills*]

phil kessel in 2009 vs phil kessel 2014 - present is different.

 

[Zac Rinaldo*]

martin havlat tbf

 

[Bowie22]

Vlasic is kinda dirty now

 

[5 4 Fighting]

Vladimir Konstantinov

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

Blake Wheeler comes to mind first. He had no idea how to use his size in Boston, at all.

To be fair to him, he did TRY. More than Hayes does at least.

At the end of his time here Wheeler would actually get in the faces of players who picked on Krejci.

It just wasn't enough.

 

[longchange]

I always thought Regehr helped toughen Hemsky up a fair bit.

 

[7even]

Nazem Kadri turned into an ass pretty quick

 

[clunk]

You're born with a mean streak, imo. I don't think a player who genuinely plays 'soft' can start playing 'hard'. But you need to define hard... Like mucking it up in the corners or standing up for themselves and throwing hits?

 

[Legionnaire]

You're born with a mean streak, imo. I don't think a player who genuinely plays 'soft' can start playing 'hard'. But you need to define hard... Like mucking it up in the corners or standing up for themselves and throwing hits?

Nah. Sweet little puppies can be kicked until they are mean and man is no different beast.

 

[Coaches Coroner]

Nazem Kadri turned into an ass pretty quick

He was always a bit of a pest and fairly gritty, at least he was from what I remember of my viewings of him in London.

 

[tfong]

Datsyuk went from softie to wall battle beast.

I always thought Regehr helped toughen Hemsky up a fair bit.

Or tenderized, depending how you look at it

 

[Anglesmith]

The Rocket?

 

[I Hate Blake Coleman]

I wouldn't ever say Crosby was soft, but he doesn't take as much crap as he did early in his career.

 

[ForSpareParts*]

I seem to remember Grapes highlighting Olli Jokinen a couple of times. Not exactly changing big, but not backing down when gloves were dropped.

 

[Analyst365]

Briere every playoffs

 

[SmellOfVictory]

I think people just get angrier as they age, so naturally a player will get tougher as they get older. At least that's my experience, I'm turning into an angry old man

Haha. Often times the opposite will happen. As guys age, if they have offensive skills, they may shy away from physical contact a little more in order to avoid gassing themselves too badly (Iginla is the most obvious example I can think of; he went from a pure power forward to more of a sniper, albeit one who does still lay a hit or two occasionally).

Mikael Backlund was accused of being too soft earlier in his career, and he definitely plays with some stank these days.

 

[BigKing]

I seem to remember Grapes highlighting Olli Jokinen a couple of times. Not exactly changing big, but not backing down when gloves were dropped.

Jokinen dropped the gloves with Bill Guerin when he was a King, so that would probably have been in 1998-99 as a 21 year old rookie.

He even finished with over 100 PIMs one year.

He was never "soft", per se.

 

[longchange]

Or tenderized, depending how you look at it

I can still hear the boards rattling

 

[Zippy316]

Adam Larsson's career did a 180 once he started playing more physical thanks to Stevens.

It definitely helped to round out his game.

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

phil kessel in 2009 vs phil kessel 2014 - present is different.

He's still ultra soft.

Someone mentioned Marcus Johansson. While I have to agree that he likes to throw the occasional hit, he doesn't do it enough. He has speed and decent size, he could be a monster on the forecheck if he could just adopt an aggressive mentality. That's not his game though, soft Swede will always be soft.

 

[BenningHurtsMySoul]

Sven Baertschi was next to useless until he started getting more involved physically. His second half of last season was night and day.

 

[rumrokh]

Brett Hull. Not that he was ever butter soft, but he was quite a different player in St. Louis than he was in Dallas and later. Harder to play against in all zones and very good defensively, whereas in St. Louis he was pretty much just a shooter, you wouldn't have wanted him out there in a grinding shut down situation.

He was like that in his last couple years with the Blues, to the point at which he was being heavily criticized for not being the huge scorer anymore. He played well in all zones and meatheads would boo him when he passed the puck instead of shooting it.

 

[KingsHockey24]

Trevor Lewis maybe?

 

[KingTux]

I had no idea that Roenick played in the QMJHL.

He played for Hull if I recall correctly