I guess that is an objective analysis of his toughness relative to stats. But, the eye test shows that he didn’t bring enough toughness that it mattered. He often chased hits behind the play, which to me is relatively worthless when you don’t add any real value on the ice in any other way. His hits weren’t entirely impactful. He looked like he was belly bumping half the time. So if you are chasing plays and not imparting fear, what’s the point. Toughness for the sake of toughness?
On top of all that, he wasn’t good offensively. He wasn’t good defensively. People weren’t scared of him. I am not sure what that toughness did for us.
I frequently see traits posed as some positive in a vacuum, but ultimately you can have a trait and it not be valuable because you don’t strategically use it. To me Clifford didn’t use it effectively.
I see the same issues with traits like speed, stick handling, shooting, etc.
(I don’t mean this to sound like I am calling you out Brian, this post is not pointed at you)