Donnie740
Registered User
- May 28, 2021
- 1,737
- 2,445
We will definitely see some OA’s swap teams. D’Amato is a pretty decent player but if Oshawa wants to compete, they’d move him and bring in Smith without a doubt since Smith fills a void that D’Amato cannot fill.
I’m the first to acknowledge that Oshawa has a very soft team devoid of any physical presence. In addition to that, their depth is also very thin - - particularly on defense after the misguided fleecing by Owen Sound.
A one-for-one swap of D’Amato for a Connor Punnett type defenceman would help to address the lack of toughness, but it still leaves them with only 4.5 capable defencemen.
Svozil the Euro is still trying to prove that he can be trusted but Rodriguez is unreliable during the regular season and unplayable during the postseason.
As we saw last year, you CANNOT survive in the playoffs with only 2.5 reliable defensive pairings. If there’s an injury, it leaves only four defencemen and they just get worn down logging 25+ mins every game.
Luke Torrance has been a serviceable player for Oshawa and it’s a cute story that he’s a local player, but you cannot keep an injury prone 3rd line plug ahead of a top four defenseman. Having an “A” on his jersey is completely irrelevant - - just as it was last year when long tenured assistant captain Tommy Stewart was traded away for a better OA player.
This should be obvious to anyone assessing the team objectively, but unfortunately pom poms can obscure logical thought.