Quote:
Originally Posted by Resolute 14
I get what you are saying, FDW, and I generally agree with your overall point. But Roman Polak is not going to put the Sharks over the Ducks or Kings any more than Deryk Engelland got us past Anaheim last year. Polak adds value fancy stats don't see, but he doesn't add enough to counter the negatives that those stats do identify.
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Personally I think Polak is a bit more nasty, mean and physical consistently than Engelland. I think they are comparable defensemen but Polak has even more of an edge IMO. Engelland might be a bit better puck mover. Yeah Polak doesn't put you over the top. But with an old core the Sharks need to go for it now or tear down. He's the kind of depth move that helps for the playoffs so I understand it.
Polak over a 7 game series is going to grind down the opposition forwards. Which is needed when LA and ANA are huge and are going to grind down your entire team over a 7 game series. It's like a war of attrition. You can help your war effort by adding physical defensive defensemen or power forwards.
Would the Ducks have manhandled us more or less if we didn't have Engelland? Probably more. Our forwards cannot stack up against theirs so I'm not sure we'd win the series adding Chris Pronger in his prime.
Bottom line to me is the Sharks improved slightly and paid a steep price to do so. This is the type of player that a lot of playoff teams will covet. Doesn't mean he's going to singlehandedly do anything but I understand why they'd target him based on how big, strong, tough and skilled our division is.