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Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald
He's an AHL 4th liner that has the package that could work in the NHL, especially in the style and system Sutter employs. There's your blind spot Scorp. You think that because a player is X in the AHL that they are going to be the same in the NHL. It doesn't work that way. Making the jump to the next level is a whole new game, and many times players have to re-create themselves and use the characteristics that make teams believe in them. Duehr is a big guy that can skate and finish from in close. He plays a north-south game and goes to the dirty areas. He scores his goals from the blue paint by getting dirty. That's exactly what is missing on the top line right now. They need a body that can crash the net and score ugly goals on Huberdeau's passes. Look at Treliving's comments again. He's saying just this.
If Sutter wasn't here I would be all for the recall of Phillips. A coach who believed in playing all the skill possible is where Phillips might get a chance, but we don't have that coach. Our guy likes beef and he likes to play dump and chase. Big guys will always have the advantage over small guys in Sutter's books, and I firmly believe he thinks this team is too small as it is. I just don't see them getting smaller even if it means adding more "skill" to the lineup.
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The thing is, though, the vast majority of guys who turn into anything in the NHL — even as fourth-liners — produce in the AHL.
I look at guys like Hathaway and Lomberg, both of whom became full-time NHLers in depth roles after being top scorers with the Flames' farm club. They shot the puck a lot down there, too, certainly much more than Duehr, who is comparatively inert.
Duehr just doesn't score and hasn't really at any level. It's not as much of a blind spot as it is a statistical trend — it's exceedingly rare for a guy who scores 11 goals in 59 games in the A as a 24-year-old to become anything more than a negative-value NHLer.
I don't doubt that Sutter would play him but I do doubt that he'd be any good.