[SuperMatt18]

Gaudreau will never be a Selke candidate and will never dominate in the corners but will have to use his stick and hockey IQ in the defensive zone to make smart plays. Guys like St.Louis and Fleury were not great defensively but they were good with their stick and are able to generate takeaways by playing smart hockey and using their speed. Gaudreau will have to do that to succeed in the NHL.

St.Louis is one of the smallest guys in the NHL but is frequently in the top 20 in the league for takeaways. Patrick Kane is another small guy who has jumped into the top 20 these last 2 seasons while improving his overall game. Gaudreau will have to provide that skill to be able to be successful in the NHL. No team will be successful when they are consistently playing 5 vs 4 in their own end in the NHL.

To get back to the main topic Sven isn't that small, and at this point plays smaller then he actually is. Sven is listed at 5'11", same height as guys like Datsyuk, Steen, Callahan, M.Richards, etc who are all quite good 200ft players.

Sven is actually listed as 2 inches taller and 10 lbs heavier then Brendan Gallagher but Gallagher is much more effective using his size. As mentioned though the benching still doesn't make sense, since you could see he was actively working on that part of his game and trying to improve it.