I'm not a fan of this either
It took me quite awhile to get on board with numb nuts (Hathaway) from Washington last year, and now this move ...yuck
I agree. Hathaway at least provided tangible 4th line hockey skills as much as I detested him.
Maroon is strictly going to be a staged goon with some "playoff late hitting" on the forecheck if he catches up to the defender. Something I suppose but after watching Brazeau he does that and more with the puck. Time will tell.
Personally I hope he does not play a game in Round 1 if it's Toronto. Save the conditional draft pick. Should the Bruins play NYR with Rempe or Florida with Tkachuk then he can play.
Anyone who has a brain is a spot picker. The role of someone like Maroon is to be an intimidator that throws off the other team's game and rally the troops to play hard when the chips are down. Part of that role is knowing when to throw a hit and on who. Otherwise, you're talking about someone whose as brain dead as Raffi Torres who just takes dumb penalties and cost your team momentum. On top of that, this finally allows Marchand and Frederic to get away from being in that role which, as far as I'm concerned, is a blessing in disguise. Far too often Marchand has had to go back and be an intimidator and lose games because of past reputation due to a lack of guys who can do that job, which isn't what Marchand should be doing at this point in his career. And while Frederic can hit, he's more of a power forward than an intimidator that goes out there to stir shit with another team's top guy, at least from what I've seen. Maroon can now be the lightning rod and those two can finally play the roles they're meant to play.
I just find it odd that people, not you as you've been consistent, are upset with Maroon joining the team due to past misgivings when we all would've been hailing him in the same breath as Shawn Thornton had he been here.
Maroon intimidates no one. At least Reaves can intimidate other fighters.