Quote:
Originally Posted by topfiverecords
Wotherspoon has never lived up to his potential and has had plenty of opportunity to claim a regular spot. I'd say he's one more shot away from it being his last. They can't continue to wait and hope he finally gets there with the amount of depth behind him.
Kulak in my opinion had a great camp and was very steady and reliable in his call-up last year and was surprised he was sent back down, although I was happy with Nakladal's play so wasn't depressed about it. Just seems to be a better option to me and I feel he'll be the first in line for the next open roster spot.
Shinkaruk has to have shown enough at the end of last year that if he doesn't have a rough camp he'll get more NHL time.
But the better question is what have you seen out of Wotherspoon that you think he's likely to hold down a spot?
|
For me, what I saw out of both Kulak and Shinkaruk were two players that could take the NHL pace in spurts, but saw they both lacked consistency in their showings. They were call up material, but not roster ready. What I saw with Wotherspoon during his final call up was a player able to play good minutes relatively mistake free. He isn't a flashy prospect, but I didn't see him looking out of place once last season.
I saw Wotherspoon / Nakladal as a completely acceptable 5/6 pairing. I didn't see a 200ft game from Shinkaruk that would make me want to play him 82 games this year, and Kulak just looked a little raw and lost.
I expected Wotherspoon to make the team out of camp last year, but Kulak exploded past him before fading back to where he was. they are close, but from where I'm sitting, Wotherspoon is ahead.
Shinkaruk vs Wotherspoon is obviously not an apples to apples comparison, but when a rookie comes in hungry to score and winds up a minus player, it makes me question their NHL maturity.