Ex-NHLer Slams the Maple Leafs for Not Getting Rid of Struggling Forward
Photo credit: Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images
Former Maple Leafs Enforcer Jay Rosehill publicly criticizes the Maple Leafs for keeping struggling young center Pontus Holmberg on the roster.
Not long ago, former Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe spoke very highly of Pontus Holmberg, suggesting that through a lot of the video he had watched of the young pivot, he could not find a clear example of a mistake.
This season, Holmberg appears to be making up for lost time when it comes to mistakes, and one former Maple Leaf has noticed it.
This week, following a dominant 6-3 Leafs win, ex-NHL enforcer and former Leaf Jay Rosehill was extremely critical of Holmberg's performance, going so far as to suggest that perhaps he no longer deserves to be on the team.
"Everytime the puck touched his stick, it blew up and he panicked and just whacked it to nowhere. If he even corralled it... i mean in [the NHL], you can just whip cross-ice, tumbling, dead ducks to a guy that bounce right before the guys' blades and these guys pick up those passes. It's like, you can't give a good player a bad pass in that league, and he couldn't even pick up passes. The puck was bouncing everywhere, he was throwing it into traffic, he was spinning... he was absolutely lost, and I'm thinking there, man, there's a roster spot -- and I'm talking about if we go deep here, trying to make a run, looking at a championship-worthy team -- you can't have guys like that."
Rosehill went on to suggest that it might be time for the Leafs to call up the AHL's leading goal scorer Alex Steeves from the Toronto Marlies and giving Holmberg's roster spot to him, just to see what he can do with a real NHL opportunity.
With how poorly Holmberg has played, it's hard to argue against that idea.
Leafs head coach Craig Berube has already been very critical of Holmberg this season and has even healthy scratched the young Swede.
It wouldn't shock me in the least if Holmberg ends up being a piece that gets moved prior to the deadline to free up some cap space, or that he ends up being added to a larger trade package for a legit upgrade at centre.
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