Let's Trade Zack Smith

NyQuil

Big F$&*in Q
Jan 5, 2005
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Ottawa, ON
A better game from him.

I've wanted him benched but he was pretty solid tonight in terms of making safe plays and finishing checks.
 

DJB

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Jan 6, 2009
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Smith is what he is. A heart and soul guy that plays on the 3rd line, bangs and crashes, will fight and stick up for teammates and can play C when called upon. He is reliable defensively as well.

I don't get the hate for this guy. You win with guys like Smith.
 

NyQuil

Big F$&*in Q
Jan 5, 2005
95,347
59,255
Ottawa, ON
Smith is what he is. A heart and soul guy that plays on the 3rd line, bangs and crashes, will fight and stick up for teammates and can play C when called upon. He is reliable defensively as well.

I don't get the hate for this guy. You win with guys like Smith.

The bolded are all things he hasn't done consistently this year.

Hey, if we're dumping on Spezza, let's be honest here.
 

Holdurbreathe

Registered User
Jun 22, 2006
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The bolded are all things he hasn't done consistently this year.

Hey, if we're dumping on Spezza, let's be honest here.

Well if we are dumping on inconsistent players then with the possible exception of Lehner the whole roster needs a thread like this.
 

hockeycoach

Registered User
Jan 20, 2006
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"bangs and crashes, will fight"

Maybe not consistently, but most of the games, when the need arrises he'll step up. Not afraid to get his nose dirty behind the net grinding or out front taking lumber in the kidneys.

Keep him, muckers and grinders with a touch of skill and moments of brilliance are the backbone of any team, and example to the younger players.

Besides, are we all brilliant everyday at our jobs?
 

Dr.Sens(e)

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Feb 27, 2002
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Aside from having too few nasty players on our team as it is, I cringe at the idea of moving Smith, as he is very good on faceoffs and takes a lot of tough draws in our own end. The way Pageau, Da Costa and Zibanejad struggle in the dot (Pageau a bit of a surprise how poorly he has done), it would basically mean you need to move Turris and Spezza to take all the defensive zone draws that are important, which means we have to give more offensive draws to our bottom 6.

Maclean leans on Smith really heavily from a defensive perspective, and we can't actually afford to have him in the box 5-10 minutes a night. So yes, he has curbed a bit of the physical confrontational stuff. But he is still a nasty SOB, and one of the few we have up front.

Smith is going no where, at least until such time as we can replace him with another strong defensive center on the bottom six who can match up against the other team's top line. It's clear our 4th line is really struggling, making Smith's role and line all the more important.
 

FolignoQuantumLeap

Don't Hold The Door
Mar 16, 2009
31,084
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Goal aside, he had a decent game last night. Actually fulfilling his role as a centre in the defensive zone for a change. Gotta see that more consistently. The team could really help him by giving him a LW who has a bit more quality with the puck on their stick.
 

Niv

Registered Hater
Sep 22, 2009
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Smith is pretty much a feistier Mike Fisher. A good asset to have, definitely worth keeping.
 

Berserker*

Guest
Smith is pretty much a feistier Mike Fisher. A good asset to have, definitely worth keeping.

At his best, that is a reasonable assessment, but I think Smith's biggest issue is his consistency. The upside is clearly there, but he needs to find a way to play that way every game.
 

DJB

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Jan 6, 2009
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At his best, that is a reasonable assessment, but I think Smith's biggest issue is his consistency. The upside is clearly there, but he needs to find a way to play that way every game.

To be honest, I like the old Zach Smith when he was first cutting his teeth in the league. He would run around like a Mack truck hitting everything in site. The problem though is that he took penalties doing it. Coaches obviously had a chat with him.

I miss the fire he used to display a little bit.
 

John Holmes*

Guest
Smith is pretty much a feistier Mike Fisher. A good asset to have, definitely worth keeping.

Minus the 50-60 points a year, so in other words, not like Mike Fisher at all.
 

Micklebot

Moderator
Apr 27, 2010
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Minus the 50-60 points a year, so in other words, not like Mike Fisher at all.

Well, Fisher has a career high of 53 and only broke 50 twice. He's more of a 40-50 guy to be honest, but point taken, Fisher is on another level offensively.
 

Hammertyme

Registered User
Jun 20, 2006
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Trade Smith trade Kassian trade Gryba waive decosta blah blah blah.. Yostitis is spreading. Players have ROLES ie shutdown, intimidation, checking. Many of these things are NOT covered by corsi and fenwick and coaches GMs don't want players to be playing for stats. Taking stupid long range shots to improve your Corsi NEVER will happen. Stats like these are to occupy the bloggers and fans who need a reason to ***** and complain and think they are justifying it. Johnny Boychuck Ryan Suter have ****** corsies. WHY? THEY ARE PLAYING A SHUTDOWN DEFENSIVE ROLE. These stats are general predictions of shot differential. Wiercioch has a good corsi but not great ice time. WHY? Its his defensive game that limits his icetime. He certainly has offensive skills. Where is reliabilty especially defensive reliabilty covered in these offensive skewed stats. Shutdown guys will seldom have good fan stats.
 

trentmccleary

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Mar 2, 2002
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Minus the 50-60 points a year, so in other words, not like Mike Fisher at all.

P-A-C-E... 50-60 points a year pace. Fisher never actually gets to play enough games to get there.

Without reading the thread, the obvious question is what is Smith worth?

I can't imagine any team would give up anything of value for Zack Smith.

I actually like the guy, but he is a fairly limited role player.

You could get 12 Zack Smiths for 10 cents.

Smith can easily have a lot of value.
He always puts up 3rd line numbers without PP time. Which is ideal because 3rd liners don't typically get PP time. So everything about him that can make him important is a value add.
- wins face-offs
- hits
- plays well defensively
- willing fighter... or more importantly in the modern NHL; is a fighter who can play.

At his best, he offers 3rd line production with every value added dimension possible. Though as I've said before; I think that he's too slow to play significant minutes at C and would probably be better served as the 3rd line LW.

Good luck.

4 years, 1.8755M.

That's basically what Moen signed for in Montreal.
31yo LW T. Moen career highs = 21 points, 11 goals
25yo C/LW Z.Smith career highs = 26 points, 14 goals

Spezza has to start giving out faceoff lessons for profit.

That seemed like a Bryan Murray thing in 2006. Vermette, Spezza and Fisher all improved immensely on draws while Murray was coaching.
 

Super Cake

Registered User
Jun 24, 2013
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This team will go nowhere with zack smith on the the team. Trade him for picks and call up zibby. #FreeMika

:sarcasm:
 

Whippet

Registered User
Feb 6, 2013
1,433
16
He was a beast tonight. Thats all I got to say.

He is valuable to the team and should play with someone more decent than that brainfart Chris Neil.
 

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