Best 2 Out Of 6
The 2006-2007 season is coming up soon and the leafs have 4 defencemen that will start in that season(Kaberle, Mccabe, Kubina, Gill) which means they need 2 more. It is obvious that they will go to their farm group but who will they pick, only 2 out of 6. The six players are Ian White, Carlo Coliaicovo, Jay Harrison, Andy Wozniewski, Steffan Kronwall, Brendan Bell. Let’s sort through these players and as we do that we will decide if they should be on the team or not.
Ian White: on the team- in that last 10 game stretch of the regular season White was called up to play with the leafs and in his first game he got an assist on a Sundin goal. In 12 games played he got 1 goal and 5 assists. The leafs may have missed the playoffs but Ian White was a big part of one of the reasons why they won so many games at the end of the season and almost made the playoffs. i’ll never forget when the leafs beat the sens 5-1 at the end of the season and in the third period Ian White made an awesome diving poke check to keep Heatly away from a break away.
Carlo Coliaicovo-on the team- in 21 games played he got 2 goals and 5 assists, has always played really well with the leafs, but I don’t know why he would always get sent back down to the farm. I’ll never forget that hit he through on Bill Guerin in the third period when the leafs played their only game against the stars and they lost 2-1 at home.
Jay Harrison-on the team- in 8 games played he only got 1 assist but it wasn’t his points that made him a good player it was his toughness, when he first got called up he played really well against florida stopping Jokinen, and the game after did a good against Tampa by stopping lecavalier, richards and st.louis, but i’ll never forget that game againts washington where he was able to take the puck away from ovechkin without taking a penalty, I like the way this guy uses his size.
Andy Wozniewski-not on the team- he played really well with Harrison, but when he had to play with kronwall or khavanov, he didn’t look that good. In 13 games played he only got 1 assist. He is a little to old for a player that is just starting to enter into the nhl and their probably isn’t much more he can accomplish.
Steffan Kronwall-not on the team- in 34 games played he only got 1 assist. Out of all of the six young defencemen that played for the leafs last season he played the most amount of games and did the least amount of progress. He had a few good games where he threw some nice hits but that’s about it, we need more out of him.
Brendan Bell- not on the team- only played one game last season and didn’t look to affective in that game. It’s not that I don’t like the guy, it’s just that I think white, coli and harrison have proven themselves. If he only played one game I don’t really think he should be a candidate,
Just because Ian White played with the leafs in that crucial last 12 games of the season in which they had to win every game and they almost did, I think he is a lock for next season and the 2nd spot goes to either Coliaicovo or Harrison. But in the end I think Coli can be just as aggressive as Harrsion the only thing that he has that Jay doesn’t have is an offensive skill.
1. Ian White 2. Carlo Coliaicovo