Quote:
Originally Posted by Huntingwhale
I think the honeymoon period with him has come to an end. Last season he was living off the adrenaline of the big trade coming into a new situation to a new team. He was bringing a role to a team that desperately needed a player like that, in exchange for a useless player in Neal. Now he's got that anchor contract slowly creeping as a target on his back once again and you even read it on CP; the fanbase is slowly turning on him. Doesn't help that he's a year older and a bit slower that goes along with it.
As you said, he was considering retiring under Peters and with that on the back of his mind if makes one wonder just where his mindset is. By all accounts he's a great dude and hopefully it's just a matter of him getting his feet under him. But slow power-forward guys in their mid 30s are a tale as old as time itself; banking on them to regain their form is a fool's errand.
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He hasn't been good in the first few games of the season, but he was great this summer in the playoff series. This was only a few months ago and was preceded by another long layoff with limited training time.
Based on that, I don't think he is done yet and still has more to give. I would consider reuniting him with Bennett and Dube (moving Ryan and Leivo to Backlund's line).