Jack Rathbone | #3 | D

[Ray_Cathode]

19 hours ago, Jack Gordon said:

I agree Woo has a better chance of cracking the roster this year. He really stepped his play up this year after having failed to woo in the previous two seasons.

 

Sadly, 'boner keeps banging his noggin and missing games and seemed to actually be regressing if anything last year.

 

Jimmy B had a lot of good qualities as a man, kindness, and generosity being two that stand out.  But he is not a patient man.

 

Ratrhbone was rushed a little.

Hughes came up at a time when we needed a D strong in offence, to run a pp, and so on.  In his first couple of years he was weak defensively - his first year paired with Tanev covered up a lot of that. In his second year he didn’t have that protection and really struggled, but had been able to establish his offensive game, so he kept his ice time. That off season he really worked on his D and became a very good all rounder defenseman. Rathbone is a very similar kind of player who didn’t really get that opportunity to establish his offensive game in the NHL. Then there was the Covid season where he was on the taxi squad and hardly got to play and hi# game regressed. Last year was marred by injuries in the first two thirds, but finally got his game back near year end and in the playoffs. It would be a shame to lose him to waivers this year because the coaching in Abby is much improved over his first two years where he learned precious little D. He still needs work on his D, but if his play at the end of last year is any measure, it’s coming. Hate to lose him now, but now that we have two more D with some size and good defensive play, he might find a way to fit in.