Quote:
Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
But there are other guys who are not obvious snubs who you could easily have taken if you wanted to prioritize running teams out of the building over balance and role playing and solid 3-1 wins. It's not popular this year because he hasn't been his best and the Blues have been terrible (and he ended up getting injured after selections were made so it's a moot point), but Robert Thomas is basically the perfect winger for Nathan MacKinnon.
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Doug Armstrong knows Thomas better than anyone in the NHL. And he didn't pick him for this team (or the 4 Nations). Tells you all you need to know.
Every GM in every country at every level of hockey assigns players roles. They have guys earmarked as checking centres, face-off guys, and penalty-killers. They don't just put the most offensively skilled players on the roster and unleash them. When an approach is employed by every winning organization across the hockey world at every level, it's probably a sound approach.
Besides Bedard, the guys left off are not great skaters. Horvat, Jarvis, etc have great wheels, they're skilled,
and they can forecheck hard and kill penalties. That's why they're on the roster and Scheifele, Thomas, and Johnston aren't.
