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2019 Draft Discussion

So we take another player in the 2nd round who is not close to 6'. Maybe he'll have a growth spurt, I hope so. But it seems we want to be the all around smallest team in the league. Can get away with it for most of the regular season, but playoff hockey is a different beast. Until the team adds 2-3 bigger players with some grit and edge to creat some room for our smaller skill players it's going to be the same result in the playoffs.
 
Something to mention re: Robertson is that the Leafs had a jersey with his name on it. Now, maybe they're a rich club and had 20-30 Jerseys done but it does say that it was clearly a situation where they were hoping he'd be there.
 
brd13 said:
So we take another player in the 2nd round who is not close to 6'. Maybe he'll have a growth spurt, I hope so. But it seems we want to be the all around smallest team in the league. Can get away with it for most of the regular season, but playoff hockey is a different beast. Until the team adds 2-3 bigger players with some grit and edge to creat some room for our smaller skill players it's going to be the same result in the playoffs.
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Welcome to the discussion.

Yes, the final matchup this year certainly calls the smurf model into question.
 
brd13 said:
So we take another player in the 2nd round who is not close to 6'. Maybe he'll have a growth spurt, I hope so. But it seems we want to be the all around smallest team in the league. Can get away with it for most of the regular season, but playoff hockey is a different beast. Until the team adds 2-3 bigger players with some grit and edge to creat some room for our smaller skill players it's going to be the same result in the playoffs.
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Boston was smaller then the Leafs and they did pretty good. Leafs have some big boys. Engvall, Marchment Korshkov(sp) are all big boys and expected to push for spots on the team. We'll be fine. You draft the best player, not the biggest.
 
brd13 said:
So we take another player in the 2nd round who is not close to 6'. Maybe he'll have a growth spurt, I hope so. But it seems we want to be the all around smallest team in the league. Can get away with it for most of the regular season, but playoff hockey is a different beast. Until the team adds 2-3 bigger players with some grit and edge to creat some room for our smaller skill players it's going to be the same result in the playoffs.
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In the later rounds you draft for skill. You need to try and swing for the fences because a big body with mediocre skill gets you a big body that just can't play.
 
brd13 said:
So we take another player in the 2nd round who is not close to 6'. Maybe he'll have a growth spurt, I hope so. But it seems we want to be the all around smallest team in the league. Can get away with it for most of the regular season, but playoff hockey is a different beast. Until the team adds 2-3 bigger players with some grit and edge to creat some room for our smaller skill players it's going to be the same result in the playoffs.
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The Leafs were bigger and heavier than the Bruins this year. They're not anywhere close to being one of the smaller teams in the league.
 
Bates said:
Heavier in NHL terms does not simply mean weight. Freddie the Goat is not heavier than Marchand.
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Exactly. A ?heavy? game is a stylistic thing, not a size thing. It?s about being difficult to play against.
 
bustaheims said:
Exactly. A ?heavy? game is a stylistic thing, not a size thing. It?s about being difficult to play against.
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The OP there was clearly talking about physical size but regardless, all good hockey players are difficult to play against. If what is meant is physicality or toughness or throwing a mean forecheck, fine, but then you can't judge any of these guys today without seeing their game.
 
Nik the Trik said:
bustaheims said:
Exactly. A ?heavy? game is a stylistic thing, not a size thing. It?s about being difficult to play against.
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The OP there was clearly talking about physical size but regardless, all good hockey players are difficult to play against. If what is meant is physicality or toughness or throwing a mean forecheck, fine, but then you can't judge any of these guys today without seeing their game.
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Correct, but the conversation then turned to Leafs vs Bruins in terms of bigger and heavier.  The Leafs are not heavier than Bruins.
 
Bates said:
Correct, but the conversation then turned to Leafs vs Bruins in terms of bigger and heavier.
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Yes and, again, I was referring to physical size. If you'd like to have a conversation about how they need to be tougher or more physical or stronger on the puck, let me hop in my time machine and get 2011 Brian Burke for you.
 
Nik the Trik said:
Bates said:
Correct, but the conversation then turned to Leafs vs Bruins in terms of bigger and heavier.
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Yes and, again, I was referring to physical size. If you'd like to have a conversation about how they need to be tougher or more physical or stronger on the puck, let me hop in my time machine and get 2011 Brian Burke for you.
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Or we could just go back a couple weeks and see how important it actually is in the NHL.
 
Bates said:
Nik the Trik said:
Bates said:
Correct, but the conversation then turned to Leafs vs Bruins in terms of bigger and heavier.
Click to expand...

Yes and, again, I was referring to physical size. If you'd like to have a conversation about how they need to be tougher or more physical or stronger on the puck, let me hop in my time machine and get 2011 Brian Burke for you.
Click to expand...

Or we could just go back a couple weeks and see how important it actually is in the NHL.
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All things being equal, size is a great advantage, as long as it doesn't impact speed and skill. However, Parayko and Peiterangelo apparently have something more valuable in their game than Holl and Marincin.
 
https://twitter.com/kristen_shilton/status/1142517059676528646

Abruzzese is, wait for it... a very small scoring forward.
 
Bates said:
Or we could just go back a couple weeks and see how important it actually is in the NHL.
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You mean when the Leafs took a team that made it to game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals to a game 7? Or back further to the two Penguins cups? Was Washington's cup because they were a heavy team? If so, why did they get knocked out by Carolina this year? Who did Washington lose that made them less heavy?

Narratives switch from year to year about why teams win. Trying to follow them is just chasing your tail.
 
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