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

[TheAngryHank]

Teemu was the first player to come to my mind. He was tissue soft but turned into a no nonsense bad ass.

 

[Gene Parmesan]

Jarome Iginla, early in his career.

 

[21]

I would say a majority if the Swedes. The difference between North American hockey and Swedish hockey is very big. The kind of physical hockey you have in North America simply isn't allowed in Sweden, different officiating, sometimes it almost looks as two different sports. SEL toughens up a lot during playoffs though, big difference. The level of physical play in SEL has definitely increased last 10 years or so, influenced by the NHL, no doubts about it

There is a reason it's super rare with good Swedish fighters in the NHL, in general we don't do that (with rare exceptions). Most of the Swedes fighting in NHL learned in North American minor leagues, AHL or juniors. The only good Swedish fighter in the NHL I can remember is Douglas Murray. Landeskog is ok but simply not big enough yet to deal with the big, bad boys.

Peter Forsberg didn't hit much in Sweden or early in his NHL career but he learned like many of the Swedes do.

In general we are well trained, tall, strong and able to adopt pretty easily.

 

[Sens Rule]

Wasn't Yzerman considered a soft player who could only perform in the regular season and a terrible leader for years?

By fools and Mike Keenan. Not by anyone that knows much.

 

[hagelin1381]

Hampus Lindholm bruises guys now.. Not sure he was ever labeled soft before though

 

[hallonskal]

Anton Strålman was my first thought when I read this title.

I remember when he played for Timrå in Elitserien (SHL now) and he was so soft. He had an amazing shot and good skating but he was so weak and could barely play defense because of how soft he was. He looks like a completely different player now, which isn't that surprising since it was more than 10 years ago he played in Sweden.

 

[TMLFOREVER**]

People saying Yzerman was soft. Haha haha. Now I have everything. Yzerman played injured most of his career and played a very gritty game and played in the dirtiest parts if the game.

What's next? People saying Messier was not a good leader?

 

[danyhabsfan]

Marcus Foligno

 

[BraveCanadian]

Craig Janney and older Pierre Turgeon were a lot grittier than they get credit for..

 

[agentblack]

Much like in real life, you get crustier and grittier as you get older. Its near impossible to be soft your entire life.

 

[David Bruce Banner]

People saying Yzerman was soft. Haha haha. Now I have everything. Yzerman played injured most of his career and played a very gritty game and played in the dirtiest parts if the game.

What's next? People saying Messier was not a good leader?

Young Yzerman wasn't soft soft, but was nowhere near the battler he eventually turned out to be.

Messier was only a good leader when he was on a good team.

 

[BraveCanadian]

Messier was only a good leader when he was on a good team.

That is the same with all of them.

Generally holds the same for people being "clutch" too.

 

[SB84]

Jarome Iginla, early in his career.

What? Absolutely not. He finished junior with 111 and 120 pims and then came into the league and was cast as a power forward right away. Obviously his first few years in the league he didn't have man strength and could intimidate others like he did later in his career but he never shy'd away from anything or anyone.

Ryan Johansen comes to mind but this playoffs he proved he could buck up and play a hard game when needed.

 

[Filatov2Kovalev2Bonk]

Much like in real life, you get crustier and grittier as you get older. Its near impossible to be soft your entire life.

Nah, I've done it pretty well myself.

More seriously though, look at guys like Gartner, Turgeon (both of them), Housley, Oleg Petrov, Petri Skriko (had a bit of an edge to him), and so on. You don't need grit to succeed in the NHL, you just need to get someone's eye then blob it out forever.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Matt Stajan and Mikael Backlund are two examples for the Flames (Backlund wasn't really "soft", but as he developed early in his career he went from a pure fundamentally sound checker to a pretty gritty player). Stajan stands out the most to me, because he came to Calgary and was this underwhelming, very unremarkable third line type centre, and impressively he really added some chippiness to his game in his early 30s - later than you'd normally expect from a player.

Stajan had chippiness in his game at young age. He was always registered for more than 1 hit per game.

 

[rt]

Mike Comrie.

 

[Godzilla]

John Scott

 

[Dylonus]

Tyler Myers?