Who were effective 'soft' players in past playoffs?

Mathew Barzal

Walk It Like I Tocchet
Jun 5, 2011
5,054
1,545
Vancouver, BC
A lot of players who 'disappear' in the playoffs seem to be the ones who rely on purely their skill and tend to avoid the physical nature of the game if possible.

Are there any notable playoff performers who were what the average hockey fan would call 'soft', yet dominated the playoffs?
 

SympathyForTheDevils

Registered User
Feb 22, 2010
1,021
1,020
Quebec City
Don't wanna get into a debate about who's "soft", so let's just say players who weren't generally physical and performed well in the playoffs.

Patrick Kane
Daniel Brière
David Krejci
Brad Richards (at least for the first half of his career)
Jason Spezza
Erik Karlsson
Pavel Bure
Pierre Turgeon
Wayne Gretzky
Mike Bossy
Guy Lafleur

To name just a few. Honestly, the notion that only physical players are succesful in the playoffs is bullshit. If you can take good decisions and capitalize on opportunities while having little time and space, you're gonna have success in the playoffs, regardless of how many hits you throw.
 

Artorius Horus T

sincerety
Nov 12, 2014
19,124
11,839
Suomi/Finland
Soft... you mean none physical players (aka players who don't play physical hockey)?, as in... regular players?,
term soft, gives the idea that those players had a deficiency or something and physical players are supposedly superior.

Can people please stop using the word soft, that word should be banned from hockey, especially during the play-offs.

- 70's (and early 80's) romp n stomp physical (goon) hockey period is way behind, where the "soft" guys were labeled as wussies, not real men and didn't belong to the play-offs, supposedly. (or in the NHL for that matter)
 
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24 others

Registered User
Jan 30, 2017
565
771
Soft... you mean none physical players (aka players who don't play physical hockey)?, as in... regular players?,
term soft, gives the idea that those players had a deficiency or something and physical players are supposedly superior.

Can people please stop using the word soft, that word should be banned from hockey, especially during the play-offs.

- 70's (and early 80's) romp n stomp physical (goon) hockey period is way behind, where the "soft" guys were labeled as wussies, not real men and didn't belong to the play-offs, supposedly. (or in the NHL for that matter)
100% agree.
 

BigBadBruins7708

Registered User
Dec 11, 2017
13,578
18,344
Las Vegas
Soft... you mean none physical players (aka players who don't play physical hockey)?, as in... regular players?,
term soft, gives the idea that those players had a deficiency or something and physical players are supposedly superior.

Can people please stop using the word soft, that word should be banned from hockey, especially during the play-offs.

- 70's (and early 80's) romp n stomp physical (goon) hockey period is way behind, where the "soft" guys were labeled as wussies, not real men and didn't belong to the play-offs, supposedly. (or in the NHL for that matter)

Soft is absolutely a valid description for a hockey player.

Soft players are the ones that do any of the following:

- dont block shots
- dont engage in board battles
- lose puck battles and dont get loose pucks
- dont hit
- dont put in the same effort in their own zone

there's more nuance to players than just "duh, he's not a fighter so he must be soft"
 

Beyonder91

RASMUS
Oct 13, 2006
8,569
1,840
Toronto
For players who don't really go to the dirty areas and avoid contact... definitely Kane and Kessel. But both of them had top players like Toews/Crosby alongside them.
Bergeron/Kopitar/Toews/Crosby/Ovechkin/Zetterberg were all guys that would grind it out to win.
I can't really think of any soft superstar players recently that led their teams in the playoffs. Softer guys like Gaudreau and Seguin definitely haven't performed too well but have smaller samples as they have missed the playoffs a lot.
Gaudreau definitely seems to be the worst though. His last two playoff series so far he has 0 goals / 3 assists / -8 / in 8 games. Was swept in 2017 and could be out in 5 this year. Yikes!
 
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SotasicA

Registered User
Aug 25, 2014
8,489
6,402
Pat Kane. He doesn't need open ice. He likes to dangle in hairy situations.
 

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