Salary and usage. If you can’t skate you gotta bring more than a bulk shooting presence. Look at Noesen as an example, he is just as slow but its rarely noticeable because he is never caught flat footed as he reads plays very well and also is a menace in front of the net. There is a reason he is a monster on the forecheck and not a liability in the D zone. He reads plays very well and gets great jumps on the play. I would like the Devils to stay away from slow moving bulk shooters who don’t provide much else.
You don’t have to be fast to not be caught flat footed all the time. It is a thing that is rarely discussed. See my reasoning above ^
Definitely isn’t an awful player. I just never felt he was a good fit here. Him playing with Jack or Nico just never made much sense. Watching him for those amount of games he was constantly playing a step behind on many situations.
I suggest you go back and look at Toffoli’s history. Outside of the Canadian Division Canadiens he has not started on a team that went in to make the playoffs since his LA days, when he wasn’t in their top-6. He bounced around from team to team as a mid-season acquisition. Winnipeg didn’t want to keep him either.
I think the main takeaway is that they didn’t look out of place at all during the 3 games against them which is good.
I’m not sure you can take all that much from anything involving last season. Injuries and goaltending and lack of adjustments by coaches doomed them and at some point they knew it was a lost season and limped to the finish.
