I was looking forward to seeing Agostino last year, and I must say I was a bit disappointed. The book I read about him was that he was an aggressive forechecker who would make life tough on opposing teams and who can provide a decent amount of depth scoring. That isn't what I really saw.
Agostino to me is very 'vanilla'. He doesn't seem to bring anything of note really. Decent speed, but not great. Doesn't play physical enough. Doesn't score enough. Doesn't do a whole lot out there IMO. Doesn't make too many mistakes either. He won't be a guy that loses you a game with a bad mistake, but he doesn't really impact the game positively. Would be great if we are talking about a bottom-pairing defencemen, but he isn't.
I thought Agostino would be far ahead of Hanowski and Van Brabant (and Hathaway too). All three of those guys bring much more to a team than Agostino does. Hanowski needs to work on his footspeed, but the kid is an absolute leader and will do whatever it takes to win a game. St. Cloud's success had a lot to do with Hanowski and what he brought to that team apparently. I think Hanowski will eventually make it to the NHL as a good 3-4th liner who is hard to play against, and can provide some timely goals - that is at least how I view him.
Van Brabant has some decent wheels and likes to play physical. I think he will be battling it out with Hanowski, Harrison, Carrol, etc., as those abrasive and hard guys to play against in the bottom 6 that can maybe kill penalties, scrap now and then, and provide depth scoring. I see all these guys providing a bit more than Agostino.
Hopefully I am proven wrong and Agostino starts showing much more than he has been, but I just don't see him as much of an asset at all. I see him as more of the types that are available every year in the AHL for free and that AHL teams sign to provide some depth to their clubs, rather than NHL teams. Hopefully he is just a slow starter and becomes another Jooris story, but I just haven't seen it.
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