TSN: Leafs' Bozak talks new additions, contract, criticism

[GordieHoweHatTrick]

Assuming Bolland is the #3C, he won't be racking up more than 30points a season, so he'll ask for little money (hopefully)

Doubt it, he does have the cup pedigree that you just know some dumb GM will pay for. It'll be nice to have a guy that had just won the cup around in the dressing room for one season though, I suppose. Here's another guy I won't be holding my breath for.

 

[The_Chosen_One]

Assuming Bolland is the #3C, he won't be racking up more than 30points a season, so he'll ask for little money (hopefully)

If anything, he'll be producing good numbers because he's going to be spending time with skilled guys as well. We're probably going to be seeing him getting an upgrade over his current. The idea is that we're going to be employing three centres in order to match the output of the top #1/#2 C tandems.

 

[Tyler Biggs*]

Simply put, Toronto media and a decent chunk of the fanbase are idiots. They seem to know more than every coach and GM out there yet curiously have not been hired by any NHL team.

 

[Tyler Biggs*]

I’ve definitely felt like a minority among Leafs fans this summer. I love the Bozak and Clarkson signings.

Bozak is totally underrated. Everyone focus on the points (or lack of points) but ignore all the little things Bozak is great at. To me you have to look at the team as a whole. In the last two NHL seasons there have only been 9 players to score higher than a point per game pace. The Leafs have TWO of them. Kessel and Lupul. Bozak is a big reason why.

He’s one of the best faceoff guys in the league. Giroux, Bozak, Toews, Bergeron and E.Staal were the top 5 in faceoff wins. Good company for Bozak to be win. He lead the Leafs in takeaways last season. He was 14th in the league and 7th among centers. Is Top 10 not good enough? He gets a good amount of hits for a top 6 center too. Same range as Jamie Benn, Mike Richards, Mike Fisher, Brandon Dubinsky, REAL hitters. But people ignore this part of Bozak’s game.

Clarkson is the same thing. The guy has been improving every year of his career, but suddenly the hockey world assumes he’s going to revert to the point production he had when the Devils had him on the 3rd line. He’s most likely going to be on a line with Van Riemsdyk and Kadri…which will be fun to watch.

Clarkson was pricey, but the cap isn’t going to go down anymore. This was a one time thing. It’s going to go up a lot. It’s based on revenues and revenues have been good since the lockout. 5.25M won’t even be a big deal in 5-6 years.

Lupul-Bozak-Kessel
JVR-Kadri-Clarkson
McClement-Bollland-Kulemin.

This isn’t a bad top 3 lines, people. Still not sure how Bolland and Clarkson are downgrades from Grabovski and Frattin. But it wouldn’t be the Leafs if everyone thought they didn’t just make the biggest mistake ever…again.

 

[zeke]

Bozak is earning the salary of a middle of the pack 2nd line centre.

Bozak performs as a middle of the pack 2nd line centre.

Who cares whether he centres kessel/jvr or lupul/clarkson.

 

[zeke]

* = contract extension starting in 2014

#1 Centres

1.PIT Crosby 8.7 / 12yrs
2.PHI Giroux 8.275 / 8yrs*
3.ANA Getzlaf 8.25 / 8yrs
4.CAR Staal 8.25 / 3yrs
5.DET Datsyuk 7.5 / 3yrs*
6.TBL Stamkos 7.5 / 3yrs
7.OTT Spezza 7.0 / 2yrs
8.SJS Thornton 7.0 / 1yrs
9.LAK Kopitar 6.8 / 3yrs
10.MIN Koivu 6.75 / 5yrs
11.WSH Backstrom 6.7 / 7yrs
12.BOS Bergeron 6.5 / 8yrs*
13.CHI Toews 6.3 / 2yrs
14.VAN Sedin 6.1 / 1yrs
15.CAL Cammalleri 6.0 / 1yrs
16.NJD Zajac 5.75 / 8yrs
17.DAL Seguin 5.75 / 6yrs
18.NYI Tavares 5.5 / 5yrs
19.PHX Ribeiro 5.5 / 4yrs
20.MTL Plekanec 5.0 / 3yrs
21.STL Backes 4.5 / 3yrs
22.WPG Jokinen 4.5 / 1yrs
23.CBJ Dubinsky 4.2 / 2yrs
24.NAS Fisher 4.2 / 2yrs
25.EDM N-Hopkins 3.78 / 1yrs
26.COL Duchene 3.5 / 1yrs
27.NYR Stepan RFA?
28.TOR Kadri RFA?
29.BUF Hodgson RFA?
30.FLA Matthias 1.75 / 2yrs


#2 Centres

1.PIT Malkin 9.5 / 8yrs*
2.NYR Richards 6.67 / 7yrs
3.COL Stastny 6.6 / 1yrs
4.CAR Staal 6.0 / 10yrs
5.SJS Couture 6.0 / 5yrs*
6.LAK Richards 5.75 / 7yrs
7.DAL Horcoff 5.5 / 2yrs
8.BOS Krejci 5.25 / 2yrs
9.TBL Filppula 5.0 / 5yrs
10.VAN Kesler 5.0 / 3yrs
11.DET Weiss 4.9 / 5yrs
12.WSH Laich 4.5 / 4yrs
13.PHI Lecavalier 4.5 / 5yrs
14.NAS Legwand 4.5 / 2yrs
15.TOR Bozak 4.2 / 5yrs
16.STL Roy 4.0 / 1yrs
17.EDM Gagner RFA?
18.NJD Henrique RFA?
19.WPG Little RFA?
20.OTT Turris 3.5 / 5yrs
21.MTL Desharnais 3.5 / 5yrs
22.CAL Stajan 3.5 / 1yrs
23.ANA Koivu 3.5 / 1yrs
24.CBJ Anisimov 3.28 / 3yrs
25.PHX Hanzal 3.1 / 4yrs
26.BUF T.Ennis 2.81 / 2yrs
27.NYI F.Nielsen 2.75 / 3yrs
28.MIN Granlund 2.1 / 2yrs
29.FLA Goc 1.7 / 2yrs
30.CHI Leblanc RFA?


#3 Centres

1.SJS Pavelski 4.0 / 1yrs
2.COL MacKinnon 3.78 / 3yrs
3.FLA Barkov 3.78 / 3yrs
4.PHX Vermette 3.75 / 2yrs
5.TOR Bolland 3.38 / 1yrs
6.NAS Gaustad 3.25 / 3yrs
7.LAK Stoll 3.25 / 2yrs
8.STL Berglund 3.25 / 1yrs
9.NYR Brassard 3.2 / 1yrs
10.BOS Kelly 3.0 / 3yrs
11.EDM Gordon 3.0 / 3yrs
12.MIN Brodziak 2.83 / 2yrs
13.PIT Sutter 2.07 / 1yrs
14.CBJ Johansen 1.95 / 1yrs
15.BUF Grigorenko 1.78 / 2yrs
16.OTT Zibanejad 1.75 / 2yrs
17.TBL Thompson 1.6 / 4yrs
18.WPG Scheifele 1.56 / 3yrs
19.CAL Backlund 1.5 / 2yrs
20.PHI Couturier 1.38 / 1yrs
21.MTL Eller 1.33 / 1yrs
22.WAS Perreault 1.05 / 1yrs
23.CHI Handzus 1.0 / 1yrs
24.NYI Cizikas 0.9 / 1yrs
25.ANA Bonino 0.7 / 1yrs
26.DAL Eakin 0.64 / 1yrs
27.NJD Gionta 0.56 / 1yrs
28.CAR Nash RFA?
29.DET Andersson RFA?
30.VAN J.Schroeder RFA?

 

[The_Chosen_One]

I’ve definitely felt like a minority among Leafs fans this summer. I love the Bozak and Clarkson signings.

Bozak is totally underrated. Everyone focus on the points (or lack of points) but ignore all the little things Bozak is great at. To me you have to look at the team as a whole. In the last two NHL seasons there have only been 9 players to score higher than a point per game pace. The Leafs have TWO of them. Kessel and Lupul. Bozak is a big reason why.

He’s one of the best faceoff guys in the league. Giroux, Bozak, Toews, Bergeron and E.Staal were the top 5 in faceoff wins. Good company for Bozak to be win. He lead the Leafs in takeaways last season. He was 14th in the league and 7th among centers. Is Top 10 not good enough? He gets a good amount of hits for a top 6 center too. Same range as Jamie Benn, Mike Richards, Mike Fisher, Brandon Dubinsky, REAL hitters. But people ignore this part of Bozak’s game.

Clarkson is the same thing. The guy has been improving every year of his career, but suddenly the hockey world assumes he’s going to revert to the point production he had when the Devils had him on the 3rd line. He’s most likely going to be on a like with Van Riemsdyk and Kadri…which will be fun to watch.

Clarkson was pricey, but the cap isn’t going to go down anymore. This was a one time thing. It’s going to go up a lot. It’s based on revenues and revenues have been good since the lockout. 5.25M won’t even be a big deal in 5-6 years.

Lupul-Bozak-Kessel
JVR-Kadri-Clarkson
McClement-Bollland-Kulemin.

This isn’t a bad top 3 lines, people. Still not sure how Bolland and Clarkson are downgrades from Grabovski and Frattin. But it wouldn’t be the Leafs if everyone thought they didn’t just make the biggest mistake ever…again.

I'd rather spread out Kessel and Lupul than play them on one line. It isn't a good idea to expect Lupul to play a power game especially with his injury history. If JVR can be more consistently imposing ( ala Clarkson), we'd have a pretty effective top line.

JVR - Bozak - Kessel
Lupul - Kadri - Clarkson

 

[leafsfuture]

I'd rather spread out Kessel and Lupul than play them on one line. It isn't a good idea to expect Lupul to play a power game especially with his injury history. If JVR can be more consistently imposing ( ala Clarkson), we'd have a pretty effective top line.

JVR - Bozak - Kessel
Lupul - Kadri - Clarkson

Agreed.

JVR -- Bozak -- Kessel had some really solid stretches, and Lupul and Kadri were clearly a good match.

If JVR is having an off game, we also have the option of moving up Lupul late in games. Randy did that late in the regular season and it paid dividends a few times.

It may not be the most attractive top 6, but you have 3 guys with PPG potential, 2 other guys who can score 30 goals

 

[Bedards Dad]

Theres literally no statistics that can assure that Bozak is a #1C, and if miraculously he is, he's the worst #1C in the NHL.

Demote him to the #2C, 4 years of torment with him as our #1C is enough already.

Theres always this...

http://www.thestar.com/sports/hocke...eVhw.2&utm_referrer=https://www.facebook.com/

 

[Cap'n Flavour]

Although Bozak contributed just 28 points in 46 games while receiving first line minutes, he said his value comes on his ability to play an all-around game and in making his linemates better.

"I've had two coaches that had the opportunity to not play me in that role and have..." Bozak said.

Wow real classy Bozak, clearly taking a shot at his own coaches' judgement.

 

[Diatomic]

Theres always this...

http://www.thestar.com/sports/hocke...eVhw.2&utm_referrer=https://www.facebook.com/

All i see is faceoffs, faceoffs and faceoffs. Why did we trade David Steckel, he's arguably one of the best in the league at faceoffs.

Point production stinks. Playing with Kessel, 1st PP unit, 20mins a game and he hardly produces.

Not to mention the article is extremely edgy.

Like "This past season he took 1,063 faceoffs, second in the league behind only Claude Giroux, and was third in percentage of team faceoffs behind Giroux and Sidney Crosby"

Who really cares how many faceoffs a player takes? I want to know how much faceoffs he has won compared to his loss ratio.

Fact is, Bozak is 52.6% in Face-offs percentage and 63rd in the league amongst Centers. Not elite company by any means

When Bozak reaches the 60% plateau in face-off percentage, then he deserves some praise.

 

[Ten]

* = contract extension starting in 2014

#1 Centres

1.PIT Crosby 8.7 / 12yrs
2.PHI Giroux 8.275 / 8yrs*
3.ANA Getzlaf 8.25 / 8yrs
4.CAR Staal 8.25 / 3yrs
5.DET Datsyuk 7.5 / 3yrs*
6.TBL Stamkos 7.5 / 3yrs
7.OTT Spezza 7.0 / 2yrs
8.SJS Thornton 7.0 / 1yrs
9.LAK Kopitar 6.8 / 3yrs
10.MIN Koivu 6.75 / 5yrs
11.WSH Backstrom 6.7 / 7yrs
12.BOS Bergeron 6.5 / 8yrs*
13.CHI Toews 6.3 / 2yrs
14.VAN Sedin 6.1 / 1yrs
15.CAL Cammalleri 6.0 / 1yrs
16.NJD Zajac 5.75 / 8yrs
17.DAL Seguin 5.75 / 6yrs
18.NYI Tavares 5.5 / 5yrs
19.PHX Ribeiro 5.5 / 4yrs
20.MTL Plekanec 5.0 / 3yrs
21.STL Backes 4.5 / 3yrs
22.WPG Jokinen 4.5 / 1yrs
23.CBJ Dubinsky 4.2 / 2yrs
24.NAS Fisher 4.2 / 2yrs
25.EDM N-Hopkins 3.78 / 1yrs
26.COL Duchene 3.5 / 1yrs
27.NYR Stepan RFA?
28.TOR Kadri RFA?
29.BUF Hodgson RFA?
30.FLA Matthias 1.75 / 2yrs


#2 Centres

1.PIT Malkin 9.5 / 8yrs*
2.NYR Richards 6.67 / 7yrs
3.COL Stastny 6.6 / 1yrs
4.CAR Staal 6.0 / 10yrs
5.SJS Couture 6.0 / 5yrs*
6.LAK Richards 5.75 / 7yrs
7.DAL Horcoff 5.5 / 2yrs
8.BOS Krejci 5.25 / 2yrs
9.TBL Filppula 5.0 / 5yrs
10.VAN Kesler 5.0 / 3yrs
11.DET Weiss 4.9 / 5yrs
12.WSH Laich 4.5 / 4yrs
13.PHI Lecavalier 4.5 / 5yrs
14.NAS Legwand 4.5 / 2yrs
15.TOR Bozak 4.2 / 5yrs
16.STL Roy 4.0 / 1yrs
17.EDM Gagner RFA?
18.NJD Henrique RFA?
19.WPG Little RFA?
20.OTT Turris 3.5 / 5yrs
21.MTL Desharnais 3.5 / 5yrs
22.CAL Stajan 3.5 / 1yrs
23.ANA Koivu 3.5 / 1yrs
24.CBJ Anisimov 3.28 / 3yrs
25.PHX Hanzal 3.1 / 4yrs
26.BUF T.Ennis 2.81 / 2yrs
27.NYI F.Nielsen 2.75 / 3yrs
28.MIN Granlund 2.1 / 2yrs
29.FLA Goc 1.7 / 2yrs
30.CHI Leblanc RFA?


#3 Centres

1.SJS Pavelski 4.0 / 1yrs
2.COL MacKinnon 3.78 / 3yrs
3.FLA Barkov 3.78 / 3yrs
4.PHX Vermette 3.75 / 2yrs
5.TOR Bolland 3.38 / 1yrs
6.NAS Gaustad 3.25 / 3yrs
7.LAK Stoll 3.25 / 2yrs
8.STL Berglund 3.25 / 1yrs
9.NYR Brassard 3.2 / 1yrs
10.BOS Kelly 3.0 / 3yrs
11.EDM Gordon 3.0 / 3yrs
12.MIN Brodziak 2.83 / 2yrs
13.PIT Sutter 2.07 / 1yrs
14.CBJ Johansen 1.95 / 1yrs
15.BUF Grigorenko 1.78 / 2yrs
16.OTT Zibanejad 1.75 / 2yrs
17.TBL Thompson 1.6 / 4yrs
18.WPG Scheifele 1.56 / 3yrs
19.CAL Backlund 1.5 / 2yrs
20.PHI Couturier 1.38 / 1yrs
21.MTL Eller 1.33 / 1yrs
22.WAS Perreault 1.05 / 1yrs
23.CHI Handzus 1.0 / 1yrs
24.NYI Cizikas 0.9 / 1yrs
25.ANA Bonino 0.7 / 1yrs
26.DAL Eakin 0.64 / 1yrs
27.NJD Gionta 0.56 / 1yrs
28.CAR Nash RFA?
29.DET Andersson RFA?
30.VAN J.Schroeder RFA?

Now this is a post worth looking at.

Do we still hate the contract?

 

[PuckMagi]

I’ve definitely felt like a minority among Leafs fans this summer. I love the Bozak and Clarkson signings.

Bozak is totally underrated. Everyone focus on the points (or lack of points) but ignore all the little things Bozak is great at. To me you have to look at the team as a whole. In the last two NHL seasons there have only been 9 players to score higher than a point per game pace. The Leafs have TWO of them. Kessel and Lupul. Bozak is a big reason why.

He’s one of the best faceoff guys in the league. Giroux, Bozak, Toews, Bergeron and E.Staal were the top 5 in faceoff wins. Good company for Bozak to be win. He lead the Leafs in takeaways last season. He was 14th in the league and 7th among centers. Is Top 10 not good enough? He gets a good amount of hits for a top 6 center too. Same range as Jamie Benn, Mike Richards, Mike Fisher, Brandon Dubinsky, REAL hitters. But people ignore this part of Bozak’s game.

Clarkson is the same thing. The guy has been improving every year of his career, but suddenly the hockey world assumes he’s going to revert to the point production he had when the Devils had him on the 3rd line. He’s most likely going to be on a line with Van Riemsdyk and Kadri…which will be fun to watch.

Clarkson was pricey, but the cap isn’t going to go down anymore. This was a one time thing. It’s going to go up a lot. It’s based on revenues and revenues have been good since the lockout. 5.25M won’t even be a big deal in 5-6 years.

Lupul-Bozak-Kessel
JVR-Kadri-Clarkson
McClement-Bollland-Kulemin.

This isn’t a bad top 3 lines, people. Still not sure how Bolland and Clarkson are downgrades from Grabovski and Frattin. But it wouldn’t be the Leafs if everyone thought they didn’t just make the biggest mistake ever…again.

good post. i'm also very happy with all the moves we've made so far. i would have liked to have gotten bernier by getting rid of someone other than frattin... but that may not have been possible... so i'm still fine with that trade since bernier could turn out to be an elite goalie.

i think we've got a good team going into next season. i love our top 9. sure, bozak isn't an elite centre... but we've got two elite wingers in kessel and lupul... and kadri has that potential to be a star as well. so we've got enough tallent in our forwards and i'm happy with all the other players because they're all good and solid. no weak links in the top 9 IMO. as much as i liked guys like komorov... he was defiantely a weak link in the top 9.

hopefully rielly gets to play for the leafs for the whole season.... i think that's going to really make a big difference... espeically with gardiner playing the whole season.

provided that guys like phanuf, gardiner, kessel and lupul stay healthy, i think we'll do very well next season. even if one of our goalies goes down, we'll be in fine shape.

i think we've got a good chance to win the cup next year as crazy as that sounds.

 

[Eb]

Assuming Bolland is the #3C, he won't be racking up more than 30points a season, so he'll ask for little money (hopefully)

You have no idea what you are talking about.

The whole reason he was traded out from Chicago is because they knew he'd be asking too much and they couldn't afford him.

 

[Eb]

I’ve definitely felt like a minority among Leafs fans this summer. I love the Bozak and Clarkson signings.

Bozak is totally underrated. Everyone focus on the points (or lack of points) but ignore all the little things Bozak is great at. To me you have to look at the team as a whole. In the last two NHL seasons there have only been 9 players to score higher than a point per game pace. The Leafs have TWO of them. Kessel and Lupul. Bozak is a big reason why.

He’s one of the best faceoff guys in the league. Giroux, Bozak, Toews, Bergeron and E.Staal were the top 5 in faceoff wins. Good company for Bozak to be win. He lead the Leafs in takeaways last season. He was 14th in the league and 7th among centers. Is Top 10 not good enough? He gets a good amount of hits for a top 6 center too. Same range as Jamie Benn, Mike Richards, Mike Fisher, Brandon Dubinsky, REAL hitters. But people ignore this part of Bozak’s game.

Clarkson is the same thing. The guy has been improving every year of his career, but suddenly the hockey world assumes he’s going to revert to the point production he had when the Devils had him on the 3rd line. He’s most likely going to be on a line with Van Riemsdyk and Kadri…which will be fun to watch.

Clarkson was pricey, but the cap isn’t going to go down anymore. This was a one time thing. It’s going to go up a lot. It’s based on revenues and revenues have been good since the lockout. 5.25M won’t even be a big deal in 5-6 years.

Lupul-Bozak-Kessel
JVR-Kadri-Clarkson
McClement-Bollland-Kulemin.

This isn’t a bad top 3 lines, people. Still not sure how Bolland and Clarkson are downgrades from Grabovski and Frattin. But it wouldn’t be the Leafs if everyone thought they didn’t just make the biggest mistake ever…again.

Good post.

 

[Diatomic]

You have no idea what you are talking about.

The whole reason he was traded out from Chicago is because they knew he'd be asking too much and they couldn't afford him.

You really need to watch the blackhawks more.

They traded him because he became their #4C by the end of the season (Shaw,Handzus stole his spots) and the hawks wanted to get into the draft.

And who's going to pay 3.375mil for a 4th line C? Nobody.

 

[Eb]

You really need to watch the blackhawks more.

They traded him because he became their #4C by the end of the season (Shaw,Handzus stole his spots) and the hawks wanted to get into the draft.

And who's going to pay 3.375mil for a 4th line C? Nobody.

That was part of it, yes.

But what does that have to do with how much he is going to ask for?

Edit: Don't think because you watched Chicago in the playoffs, you know what you are talking about. Before they traded for Handzus, Bolland was the guy.

 

[Damisoph]

I still don't understand the obsession with labelling guys #1C, #2C, etc etc. Ya Kessel would do better with Eric Staal, or John Tavares, or whomever...but those guys don't grow on trees. I hope Bozie makes you haters eat your words this year.

 

[Eb]

I still don't understand the obsession with labelling guys #1C, #2C, etc etc. Ya Kessel would do better with Eric Staal, or John Tavares, or whomever...but those guys don't grow on trees. I hope Bozie makes you haters eat your words this year.

And those guys don't cost 4.2 million a year either.

 

[Fogelhund]

* = contract extension starting in 2014

#1 Centres

1.PIT Crosby 8.7 / 12yrs
2.PHI Giroux 8.275 / 8yrs*
3.ANA Getzlaf 8.25 / 8yrs
4.CAR Staal 8.25 / 3yrs............

Didn't include RoR from Colorado??

 

[Diatomic]

That was part of it, yes.

But what does that have to do with how much he is going to ask for?

Edit: Don't think because you watched Chicago in the playoffs, you know what you are talking about. Before they traded for Handzus, Bolland was the guy.

Ya he was the #2C and he wasn't producing despite having Kane on the wing + he got injured. Getting two 4ths and a 2nd for a dude that can't produce with Kane on the wing and injury problems is like a gold-mine.

 

[Bedards Dad]

All i see is faceoffs, faceoffs and faceoffs. Why did we trade David Steckel, he's arguably one of the best in the league at faceoffs.

Point production stinks. Playing with Kessel, 1st PP unit, 20mins a game and he hardly produces.

Not to mention the article is extremely edgy.

Like "This past season he took 1,063 faceoffs, second in the league behind only Claude Giroux, and was third in percentage of team faceoffs behind Giroux and Sidney Crosby"

Who really cares how many faceoffs a player takes? I want to know how much faceoffs he has won compared to his loss ratio.

Fact is, Bozak is 52.6% in Face-offs percentage and 63rd in the league amongst Centers. Not elite company by any means

When Bozak reaches the 60% plateau in face-off percentage, then he deserves some praise.

Maybe actually reading the article would help.

As the Leafs’ No. 1 centre, the diversity of the minutes Bozak has played places him in elite company. Last year, Bozak averaged 20:18 minutes a game, with 2:58 on the power play and 1:38 short-handed.

The only other forwards to average 20 minutes, with over two minutes on the power play and 1.5 minutes shorthanded are:

Ilya Kovalchuk (15 years, $100 million)
Jordan Staal (10 years, $60 million)
Mikko Koivu (7 years, $47.25 million)
Jason Pominville (5 years, $26.5 million; signed as a restricted free agent)
Matt Duchene (2 years, $7 million; restricted)
Derek Stepan (3 years, $2.46 million; restricted)
Ryan Callahan (3 years, $12.8 million; restricted)
Claude Giroux (3 years, $11.25 million; restricted)
While Kovalchuk has truly separated himself from the other UFAs from an offensive standpoint, can the same really be said about comparables like Staal and Koivu?

Not much separates those two from Bozak. In 238 career games, Bozak has scored 134 points for an average of 0.56 points per game. Staal scored 119 points in his first 245 career games (0.48 PPG). While it’s true that Staal began his career at a much younger age, through 479 career games he has 279 points for a career average of 0.58 PPG, essentially Bozak’s career mark.

Koivu is another solid comparison to Bozak because they play a similar style and began their professional careers at a similar age. In Koivu’s first 203 games he had 117 career points, or 0.58 PPG.

While he has since raised his career numbers, and has posted a career high of 71 points, his trajectory is similar to Bozak’s. As with Staal, Bozak is a marginally better career faceoff man than Koivu. While Koivu may have proven to be more valuable with his increase in offensive production, after his first three seasons he was comparable to Bozak.

Again, if he is worth $47 million, is Bozak not worth $25 million?

 

[Bedards Dad]

Wow real classy Bozak, clearly taking a shot at his own coaches' judgement.

No he is saying that the coaches did not have to play him there and chose to. Pat on his own back, nothing about the coaches.

 

[Diatomic]

^ Theres alot of difference between Staal/Koivu and Bozak's game, who they play with, they're strengths, career paths etc etc.

Like, Staal playing #3C on a checking role for the most of his career, and Bozak playing with a PPG winger, they all factor in.

Lets just say that for every article that tells us why Bozak is a #1C, theres another 100 articles that tell us why he isn't.

 

[colchar]

Theres literally no statistics that can assure that Bozak is a #1C, and if miraculously he is, he's the worst #1C in the NHL.

Demote him to the #2C, 4 years of torment with him as our #1C is enough already.

Yeah, because you can be objective about this issue