TheAngryHank
Expert
- May 28, 2008
- 18,126
- 6,747
Teemu was the first player to come to my mind. He was tissue soft but turned into a no nonsense bad ass.
Wasn't Yzerman considered a soft player who could only perform in the regular season and a terrible leader for years?
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?
Messier was only a good leader when he was on a good team.
Jarome Iginla, early in his career.
Much like in real life, you get crustier and grittier as you get older. Its near impossible to be soft your entire life.
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.