Monday 2 September 2013

Can a bigger Jarred Tinordi make the Canadiens out of training camp?

About Jarred Tinordi's size, he has now a listed weight of 227 lbs, ascertained at the July prospect development camp.  All his hard work shows, along with normal physical maturation as he ages.  It's paying off.  He was drafted at a lanky 6'6" and 205 lbs, but looking at video of him at the camp, you could see how much he's bulked up.  

The real indicator for me is his neck, how it used to be kind of long and skinny, but he's got traps on now and his neck is huge and flaring out.  So the weight he's putting on is 'good weight', muscle, it's like adding cubic inches to the engine.  It's weight that makes him go, not weight around his middle that'll slow him down.  So unless he gets to something excessive like 250 lbs too quickly, the more of this good weight, the more muscle he puts on, the better.

As far as him making the Canadiens roster this fall, I'm more naturally cautious, and would prefer him to spend another season in Hamilton, but the team will figure out where he's better off, playing heavy minutes for the Bulldogs or a more restricted role as he's eased into the NHL, Brendan Gallagher-style.  The thing is though, whereas I was really concerned before that he might get overworked too early, and maybe targeted by other teams' enforcers and goons, now with Douglas Murray on board, I feel a lot more comfortable with the idea of him being in the NHL.  He'll now have a veteran NHL'er to help him with the defensive side of things, and with the toughness in his own end aspect of the game.  It will relieve the pressure on him.  And once Alexei Emelin comes back, then that load will be carried even more equally, and not just by a 21 year old rookie.  

So if he sticks with the Canadiens out of camp, I can deal with that.  Now that Douglas Murray is on board.  So it's almost paradoxical.  When we had no physical defencemen on our putative October roster, when we really needed one, I didn't want Jarred on there.  Now that we have that big tough third-pairing guy, and the corresponding need is reduced, I actually would be okay with him staying up in the NHL instead of being sent down to the AHL.  

Just another result of the timely, inspired acquisition of Douglas Murray.  Kudos Marc Bergevin.

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