Here’s how I see them in tiers:
I'm reminded of when people debated whether Steen or Colaiacovo was the main piece in the Stempniak trade. Or Shattenkirk or Stewart.
Holloway was the 14th pick. But I do agree I don't think Snuggerud had anything to do with the OS, they would have done it either way.
Stewie lead our team in scoring in that lockout-shortened season. When he was on, he was a perfect top-6 Blues player. A great physical presence with a real scoring touch. There was a time when I believed he could become our version of Ryan Kessler. But you’re totally right, he would just flat out disappear for games, half a season at a time. Just totally useless. Honestly in retrospect Berglund was similar in some of those respects.
They absolutely have to answer to the league. The NHL has an officiating department that hires, fires, promotes, demotes, and regularly evaluates officials. Their employment, game assignments, and potential demotion to the AHL is all directly determined by the league based on how the league judges their performance.
In MLB umpires can be fined and suspended I know that. Not sure about other leagues.
Sure, they answer to the league, but linesmen and officials are rewarded based on nepotism. Most of the officials who officiate in the playoffs are veterans with over 1000 games in the NHL. If anything, the young guys are the ones who are disciplined in the league if there is reason to, whereas it seems like from what I've seen that the officials with 1000+ games hardly have to answer. Again, my contention is with the guys who display favoritism towards certain players or teams. For example, there was a stretch of like 10 years or so where the Leafs were in the top 5 most penalized team and were like bottom 5 for drawing penalties. There's absolutely no way that I'm going to believe that every year they displayed the same type of penalty taken/penalty drawn behavior. Players like Michael Bunting who started playing as an agitator got rewarded with getting penalized when there was no reason for it, while players like Marchand can do basically whatever he wants and get away with it.
Maybe the most precious quality for a great player is having an elite motor. Many guys are athletically gifted and COULD be great, but there are guys who pathologically hate to lose or are afraid to fail to an extent that they show up ready to compete every night. It’s special when you see it. But Stewart wasn’t that guy. I loved Berglund as a player who was easy to root for, but he didn’t have that drive either. I hope he’s happy these days.
That's an interesting list. I see it a bit different, but I get your rankings
One of the top in the nation this past season. That's a great landing spot for Ralph. Way better than St. Cloud State.
