In his first Friday Four of the season, RoryBoylen shares his thoughts on Ondrej Kase, Alex Ovechkin, Drew Doughty and Seth Jones.
In 2019-20, the Boston Bruins recognized this potential and evaluated it was worth spending a first-round pick on to acquire at the trade deadline. Kase played six games for them until the pandemic forced a pause -- in the playoffs he suited up 11 times and led the Bruins with four primary assists at 5-on-5.
When Keefe was asked about Pierre Engvall's impact -- Toronto's first goal scorer of the season -- after the Leafs' first game, the coach also mentioned Kase, unprompted, as a standout performer. This follows an interesting quote in the pre-season about the player.For that to happen, you'd think Kase would need to move to the left wing and bump either Ritchie or Bunting from their top-six roles. Bunting, at least, is also off to a fast start with the Leafs.
What's surprising is that Jones didn't start one single 5-on-5 shift on a defensive faceoff -- and that makes the fact the Hawks were outchanced so bad a little more alarming. Paying $9.5 million to a big-minute defender comes with the expectation that he's going to improve a team weakness. A positive possession player through most of his career -- and a staple of past Team Canadas at the 2010 and 2014 Olympics -- as the Kings have slipped, so has Doughty. And, notably since former partner Jake Muzzin left, Doughty's on-ice shot differentials have fallen below 50 per cent.
Eight years removed from the last Olympics with NHL participation, there's going to be a lot of turnover on Team Canada, especially with the blue line. Pietrangelo is locked in for a return and Doughty, if he performs, may be only the second blue liner coming back.If you don't believe Ovechkin can track down Wayne Gretzky's all-time goal record by now, you're behind the times.
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