He is scoring a lot this season with Grand Rapids. Is he a good forechecker, physical, and defensively responsible? Does he have a game that could translate to being a 4th-liner in the NHL? Just curious what someone that has seen him play thinks.
He is scoring a lot this season with Grand Rapids. Is he a good forechecker, physical, and defensively responsible? Does he have a game that could translate to being a 4th-liner in the NHL? Just curious what someone that has seen him play thinks.
7 comments
Good question, I would love to know too. Following this post
From what I have seen/heard he doesn’t play great off the puck, is smallish and not very strong along the walls/forecheck.
Given he is 27, that isn’t likely to change. Great AHL guy as he is good offensively against AHL competition. Not likely to make the NHL though for the reasons listed above.
That’s fine though as we need good vets in the farm system that can produce down there to take the heat off the kids who are trying to develop.
He was a 4th liner for the Sharks and Nashville during their playoff years. But if we call him up he will need to go through waivers at some point and I don’t think we want to lose him. He is part of the buffer zone that shields rookies from having to be called up because Steve doesn’t like them moving around like that so maybe we will see him.
“Elite goal scorer who is good at everything else” but for the AHL. His NHL games played per season have decreased every year, which is usually a bad sign for someone trying to have an NHL career at some point. What I also notice about the teams he’s played for is that their NHL roster is pretty difficult to crack while he’s there. San Jose and Nashville were both at the tail end of their respective relevancies while Arizona and now Detroit have a ton of younger players trying to get the spot.
It’s incredibly tough for 6th rounders to make it to the NHL (Leonard playing as many games as he did is super impressive) and it gets tougher for every year that passes and every minor league game you play. Dominik Shine playing his game with the Wings last year was such an awesome story because of how rare that feat is.
Anybody remember Mark Mowers? Point per game player in the AHL, couldn’t really do much in the NHL.
Skill gap between the AHL and the NHL is real.
Great post OP. This is the kind of content and topics that I love and enjoy the most.
I have wondered the same thing about Leonard too.
Thanks for posting and starting a good and hopefully informative discussion.
Mostly rock n roll
