Logical Progression wrote:
I'm hearing that Babcock didn't really give him a fair shot and he was a healthy scratch 60+ times and was kept around for depth / injury purposes. Apparently he's a great finisher but not the best skater. He'll definitely get some decent ice time on the Canucks.
Much as I thought (and still think) Babcock has some maddening tendencies to overplay veteran grinders and not give fringe prospects any sort of real shot, to be fair I don't think any of the guys that he "mistreated" ever went on to do anything anywhere else. I think he even took some subtle jabs in the press at Frank Corrado not too long ago.
As for Leivo, I dunno. He's 25 now, which is more or less the age at which you say the guy is no longer developing--what you see is what you get. He got some decent looks on those truly horrid Leafs teams before Shanahan showed up IIRC. What I've read is that he can get going pretty fast in a straight line, it's his edgework and explosiveness that aren't great. If he ever becomes anything in the NHL it'll likely be a 3rd/4th line guy who powers his way into the slot and scores the occasional garbage goal.