Re: Trade Updates and Rumours from around the League
I have to say, watching every Canuck's game last year, on espn360, as obviously I cannot go live living in Scotland, I was really surprised by how well Wellwood adapted to playing a 3rd line roll. What he lacks in size and speed he really makes up in smarts and (once he had a bit more of a conservative discretion being the better part of valour approach) good positioning. Mostly I was impressed by how well he was in the corners while defending, which I figured he would be completely hopless at. He has a pretty good sense of when he can go in and win a battle with frenzied stick work and when he can't, in which case he sits back and does a pretty good harrasing just enought that the offencive player isn't able to really get anything going, while cutting off a clear path to the net.
Kesler was our real shutdown guy of course, but Wellwood was good enough that I never really dreaded his line icing the puck and getting strandad out there with their best line coming out, like one usually does with a fourth line, unless it was really bad like Thorton's line or something.
Anyways, I think he would be solid pickup for a team that already had a couple good all around fast and physical 3rd liners, so he didn't need to crash and bang so much, but could just quietly go about his business most of the time, while knocking your socks off every now and again with a nifty backhand saucer pass to a defenceman sneaking in back door.
I guess it comes down to if a GM out there can forgive his small frame and lack of physical play, assuming that he is not going to be in your top 6, which I think is unfortunately not very likely any longer.