If Batch is staying then he better do a lot more than what he did last season. Barely threw a check and when he did they were little tiny pushes, for a 6’4 guy he’s nowhere near physical enough. Barely had a fight apart from Ronnberg and Kurtz (think that’s about it) and personally judging by the season he had last year I wouldn’t have had him back so he better step up to the plate. If we were to sign a Brit similar to Batch I’d take Swindlehurst for a D man. Batch is tough don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think he’s good enough and there’s far better brit options out there.
Can’t tell if this is a joke or not...
Batchy had such limited minutes last year, that there was hardly any chance for him to throw any hits at all...add that to the fact he was playing as a forward, which he hasn’t actually done since Lord became coach, and the fact he was also playing on a line with Toms Rutkiss who although he’s good, isn’t the finished article yet, I don’t think expecting Batchy to throw hits left right and centre, or drop gloves week in week out is very realistic to be honest.
Let’s look at it another way, he played clever when he was on the ice as a forward, allowing Toms to get forward and make things happen (Lordo’s last ever goal for us anyone...?) whilst covering the back end, and ensuring if things went wrong we weren’t left short.
Yes Batchy is big and tough, but there’s a lot more to being a clever hockey player than hits and fights.
Can you think of ANY other Brit player his age, who would sit back on the bench be a team guy, and not bitch and moan about getting limited numbers when they’d been a top 4 d-man for the past 3 seasons?