Rumsfeld wrote:
That is complete speculation and it's unfounded. AV gave him lots of icetime in our huge regular season game against Boston and he responded with a big goal.
A huge regular season game against an Eastern opponent. I have a feeling it was a far bigger game in the fans minds than it was in the coaches mind.
And by the way that LOTS of ice time was 11:19. His goal was also PP so not sure how my assessment was unfounded when i believe I said that was a role he may be used in. He received less than 6:30 of even strength time and over 4 minutes PP time that game. That ES time less than everyone not named Weise and Ebbett (who got hurt early on in the game). That was pretty much the story for Hodgson. He was consistently 11th or so amongst the forwards in ES icetime during games at the end of his canuck tenure. That includes the games where he got 14-15 minutes (EVERYBODY was in those games and they were typically well in hand so AV played his less trustworthy players more). I don't find it at all likely that a guy that was being fed limited minutes compared to all but one or two 4th line forwards and given soft match ups was going to be given much of a role at all come playoff time.
When Cody played here people hacked on his defense but now you make it sound like he is the worst defensive forward in the league. Did you watch the Sedins defensively last season? They were absolutely godawful.
Cody Hodgson was abyssmal defensively. I didn't say worst defensive player but he really was not good at all.
I believe From plus/minus to possession stats the Sedins had good numbers this past season.
Cody would have gotten a regular shift in the playoffs and been used bigtime on the PP. Stop trying to rewrite history to make yourselves feel better.
And just to clarify Tant, you'd have rather had Kassian in the playoffs last year than Hodgson?
Why would Cody have received a regular shift? He was getting just over 10 minutes a game when he was traded. Guys like Darren Helm were eating him alive. Guys like Kopitar and RIchards would have been salivating at the chance to go up against him when the canucks were on the road. Whether Hodgson was moved or not they were going to acquire Pahlsson which decreases his icetime even further.
I'm not re-writing anything. AV wanted a guy like Pahlsson that year and his GM went out and got him. They played Hodgson in a position and gave him 5-on-5 minutes which were similar to what they gave Bitz, Samuelsson and Sturm (in their short tenures that year), and LaPierre. He was consistently at or next to the bottom in ES icetime for most individual games. They then acquired a guy that moves him further down the 5-on-5 depth chart. It's not revisionist history...it was a foregone conclusion. Hodgson was not going to see significant icetime in key situations in the playoffs under AV. (now this is speculation but I do believe It's likely one of the reasons he was moved when he was because decreasing icetime down the stretch and in the playoffs wouldn't do much to improve his trade value).
And yes I would want Kassian over Hodgson because I'd rather the guy they want to move forward with as an organization than the one that was always going to be behind Kesler and Sedin. Had Hodgson shown something that looked like he could supplant Kesler or Henrik in a year or two I may feel different but he didn't. He showed he has good offensive talent but was missing a lot from his game (still is) that he was always going to be at least the guy on the third rung at center. A place he doesn't want to be.
And the real comparison is Hodgson vs pahlsson or Hodgson vs Roy as those were the guys in his place in the lineup. And on both accounts yes I would have preferred the guy not named CoHo for the purposes of THIS team trying to have playoff success. If it was a first year playoff team you likely lean the other way but not with the team they had, how they were set up and who was coaching. That is still the case because Hodgson would still be the #3 guy in town....demanding a trade no doubt.