I think my lasting memory of Blake Thompson will be him falling over like bambi on ice several times trying to join a mele at the end of the game vs Guildford flames. Have to admit I think we certainly had to upgrade on Thompson, too many giveaways and not enough upside to compensate...and if River is a direct replacement we can hope this is definitely an improvement.
This being said I think there is a decent player in there. I remember at the start of the season the consensus was overwhelming positive on Thompson. Sometimes things just don't click and a coach doesn't get the best out of certain players. I wouldn't be surprised if he had a good season with Blaze.
Just want to add some agreement, and some actual stats to this.
Over the entire season, Thompson had 15 games where his +/- was negative, the rest he was either even, or he had a positive +/-, with some games even being +3 on multiple occasions.
For me, it was down to defence pairing, and coaching. Blake Thompson should have come in and been a third pairing d-man at best, and would have been solid back there with a defensively sound partner, like a Lou.
I fully expect Danny Stewart to get much more out of Thompson than Brodie ever did.
Best of luck to him, except against us.