Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
When exactly did Ferland make this decision?
Through his first 55 games of the season he was pretty consistent and experiencing the most success of his professional career. I think it is much more likely that his production plummeted in tandem with Sean Monahan's injuries.
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He was an agitator when he came into the league. That was supposed to be his role in the league. Someone who can open up space for other players on his line, agitate, and pot some goals.
How many times did Ferland make a bone-crushing hit this season? How many times did the other team call him "Ferklund" or even acknowledged his presence post-game?
Before you say that top line players don't need to play that game, there are plenty of guys who do it (Perry, Marchand etc.). He is obviously not as good as those guys but he was extremely effective against Vancouver in the playoffs. Especially when playing with guys like Monahan and Gaudreau - Guys who aren't naturally mean natured on the ice.
Personally, I would take playoff beast Ferland on the third line putting in 10-15 goals a season rather than what we saw this year with his 20 goals. How sweet would it be if we had both Tkachuk and Ferland agitating the crap out of other teams.