Grabovski interview with Puck Daddy

[CarltonTheBear]

I still think Bozak can make a career out of being a 3rd/4th line player. Regardless of what his +/- was last season, he's still a fairly dependable defensive player with a little bit of skill. It's just too bad we need size/toughness so badly in the bottom-6 (or in the top-12 even), because he obviously doesn't provide any of that.

 

[Seymore Pucks]

He is perfect for the 3rd line and PK unit.  If Colby can stay healthy I could see a few more points coming to help out, and perhaps some more SHG's from Bozak. 

 

[Kin]

We all saw the potential that Bozak had in his rookie year and I really don't understand anyone who would look at his tough sophomore year and try to say that potential has just completely evaporated.

That said, I think he's just about as out of position on the 3rd line as he is on the 1st. He's got some offensive skill and is pretty responsible defensively but I doubt he'll be able to make a go of it as a defensive specialist.

 

[BlueWhiteBlood]

We all saw the potential that Bozak had in his rookie year and I really don't understand anyone who would look at his tough sophomore year and try to say that potential has just completely evaporated.

That said, I think he's just about as out of position on the 3rd line as he is on the 1st. He's got some offensive skill and is pretty responsible defensively but I doubt he'll be able to make a go of it as a defensive specialist.

I agree heavily with the first part, however not sure about the second part of your post. Where would he fit ideally?

 

[Kin]

I agree heavily with the first part, however not sure about the second part of your post. Where would he fit ideally?

That would obviously depend on whether or not he ever realizes his potential. If he does, I think he'd make a good second line centre. If not, like I said, I think he's more of a fringe NHL'er than he is a top notch defensive centre.

 

[BlueWhiteBlood]

That would obviously depend on whether or not he ever realizes his potential. If he does, I think he'd make a good second line centre. If not, like I said, I think he's more of a fringe NHL'er than he is a top notch defensive centre.

I agree that the second line would probably be the perfect spot for him, however I'm not completely writing off that maybe he will show us a bit of defensive abilities. I'm not going to say he'll be a prototypical shutdown 3rd line center, but I believe, like others, that he has some untapped defensive capabilities, that we haven't seen yet.

Luckily he'll have the opportunity to show us that, as our second line spots are covered and he'd have to blow some people away to steal it. Last year as we all know, being cast into that top spot I think really put him in a position to fail and maybe contributed to us not seeing what he may be capable of on that 3rd line. We'll see...

 

[princedpw]

We all saw the potential that Bozak had in his rookie year and I really don't understand anyone who would look at his tough sophomore year and try to say that potential has just completely evaporated.

That said, I think he's just about as out of position on the 3rd line as he is on the 1st. He's got some offensive skill and is pretty responsible defensively but I doubt he'll be able to make a go of it as a defensive specialist.

I have no idea how Bozak is going to turn out.  If by "got some offensive skill and is pretty responsible defensively" you mean an above-average 2-way player, then I certainly think that can be a useful piece as a team's 3rd most talented center.  It depends on who else we can get at center in the next couple of years and of course how good at each end Bozak becomes.  If Bozak were to morph in to Grabovski version 2.0 (with his level of both offensive and defensive skills), I'd be pretty happy having two "2nd line centers" play on my 2nd and 3rd lines.

At the end of the year, Grabbo's line took a lot of the toughest defensive challenges.  When we had Sundin, I believe he matched up against the toughest competition relatively frequently (at least I remember him matching up against Thornton as an example).  In such situations, the "3rd" line often has fewer defensive responsibilities and hence players with a mix of offense-defense or even leaning towards offense can be the right match for the team overall... This is apparently what Philly did with Briere last year.  Really my point is just that it is not set in stone that the "3rd line" center has to be an all-defense kind of player. 

 

[Tigger]

Bozak needs to shoot way more if he wants to progress into a real dependable second line centre. He checks fine, thinks the game pretty well and can skate, his biggest problem was that he didn't use his skills on instinct much of the time last year but I think the experience will do him good.

I thought his last 30 games or so were much better overall.

 

[Mot the Barber]

I think Bozak needs more than incremental improvements to further his career in any meaningful way.  He kinda needs a breakout year.  And for that he needs to have put on some pounds bec. he's not skilled enough to dipsy doodle around defensmen and certainly not tough enough to shrug them off. 

 

[caver]

The Leafs took a kid with 37 games of NHL experience and made him the 1st line center. I can understand how that pressure could negatively affect him. Without that burden he may show what he can do, like he did in his 1st year. Add the possibility of a healthy Lombardi and the Leafs could have 3 very capable centers. 

 

[Tigger]

I think Bozak needs more than incremental improvements to further his career in any meaningful way.  He kinda needs a breakout year.  And for that he needs to have put on some pounds bec. he's not skilled enough to dipsy doodle around defensmen and certainly not tough enough to shrug them off.

I don't think he needs a breakout year so much as to let himself become more accustomed to the pace of the game intrinsically. He had a pretty steep curve, no? Worry less about the goal than the process or so I've heard.

 

[Kin]

At the end of the year, Grabbo's line took a lot of the toughest defensive challenges.  When we had Sundin, I believe he matched up against the toughest competition relatively frequently (at least I remember him matching up against Thornton as an example).  In such situations, the "3rd" line often has fewer defensive responsibilities and hence players with a mix of offense-defense or even leaning towards offense can be the right match for the team overall... This is apparently what Philly did with Briere last year.  Really my point is just that it is not set in stone that the "3rd line" center has to be an all-defense kind of player.

One of the big differences between the situation in Philly and the situation in Toronto is that Philadelphia had the pretty enviable position of having, in Mike Richards, a player who was talented enough offensively to play a big chunk of minutes in every situation but who also happens to be one of the better defensive forwards in the league. That leaves you the option of being more creative with your bottom six, especially when the Flyers also had wingers who could ride shotgun with Richards in that role.

The difference with the Leafs is that Grabo, while talented, is not on that level defensively. You're right, last year Grabo's line was often on the ice against some of the other team's top forwards but A) that's in part because someone had to and neither the Brent nor the Bozak lines were capable in those roles and B) that(playing against another team's top lines) is probably true of any top offensive line anyway.

So while I agree with you that you can be flexible in your roles, that's in large part because of who's ahead on the depth chart. If Bozak isn't going to be your typical thirdline centre then you're more or less depending on Grabo to be Mike Richards, which seems further fetched than expecting Tyler Bozak to be Bob Gainey.

That's really the issue as I see it(and remember that this is all predicated on the idea of Bozak trying to make it in the league as a defensive specialist). The Leafs, and I said as much during the off-season, needed to make the biggest improvements to their PK and bottom 6 absent landing a top centre so Bozak needs to step up his defensive game dramatically as a 3rd line centre if the Leafs will be effective this year.

 

[Kin]

I agree that the second line would probably be the perfect spot for him, however I'm not completely writing off that maybe he will show us a bit of defensive abilities. I'm not going to say he'll be a prototypical shutdown 3rd line center, but I believe, like others, that he has some untapped defensive capabilities, that we haven't seen yet.

That sort of belief is fine and all but I think we need to be honest about what we're looking for here. Bozak was not good defensively last year and now he's being put in a largely defensive role. So it's not a case of him finding some sort of untapped reserve, it's a case of a poor defensive player becoming a very, very good one. That's a huge shift. I'd like to see it but I haven't seen anything from Bozak that says that's terribly likely.

Last year as we all know, being cast into that top spot I think really put him in a position to fail and maybe contributed to us not seeing what he may be capable of on that 3rd line.

Yeah, I remember being here last year at this time and trust me, "we" all weren't saying that putting Bozak on the top line was putting him in a position to fail.