Clifford literally played 49 seconds in our last playoff run and the only thing he did was take a 5 minute major penalty which could have easily defined our series from the start. Our team was objectively worse with him in the lineup, which is why we never used him again after that.
Simmonds too was crap, and all he did was run around banging their 4th line guys and fired them up. Tampa's 4th line was better when they went up against Simmonds... Probably because he engaged them and also because he is a bad player and is much easier to play against. They were complete non-factors when Maroon had nobody to jaw at, and our 4th line was consistently outplaying them.
This team has no time or need for a defined enforcer role. He doesn't make us tougher, and he certainly does not make us a better team. Him fighting the other team's enforcer and spending the rest of the game on the bench jawing at another team's scrub player is not helping us win. And any intangible aspect of having him bring "energy" to the group is washed away by the fact that we have to play our top 3 lines that much more because he made the 4th line practically unplayable and excludes the fact that he can't even keep up well enough to line anyone up very often anymore. So unless he finds someone willing to fight him (not many people want to anymore, and for a good reason) or he somehow can catch up enough to hit someone, then he is not even bringing energy. He spent much of the latter part of the year skating around and looking like he was pretty much ready to retire.
Finally, good teams don't use enforcers anymore because they are bad hockey players which hamper their team's ability to run a deep lineup. Islanders have Martin and Johnston. Ryan Reaves was one for a while, but he was actually a decent hockey player when he was in Vegas. Same with Maroon in Tampa. All of them are in their mid-30's, except Johnston, and are on the verge of retiring. Ross Johnston should not have an NHL career and barely plays anyways. Pezzetta in Montreal may be another one, but we will see where his career goes. The enforcer role died a decade ago, and if somehow Dubas has not realized/figured that out by now, then he is an idiot. Fortunately, I don't think Dubas is an idiot. If Simmonds is in our lineup, it is not a hockey decision. It is another Thornton-like "we need an older veteran in the room" decision which, other than Spezza (who was actually a good player until the day he retired), has not worked out for us.
I wouldn't use Gaudette. I don't think he plays a role with this team besides a AAAA call up. But I would certainly use Joey Anderson over Simmonds any day of the week. He is actually (still) good at hockey, at both ends of the ice, and he brings the kind of useful energy and toughness that good teams put throughout their lineup. The kind of guy that helps teams win games. Maybe he hasn't put up much production yet, but at 24, he is more likely to provide more production this year than a 34 year old who looks ready to retire.
