Hello everybody. I have noticed that many people feel that the enforcer is not needed in the "new" NHL. I don't feel that is the really the case. I believe that enforcers can be effective in the "new" NHL. The problem has been that the Devils have not had "good" enforcers over the last few years. When I went to HockeyDB.com to look up the season stats for the Devils over the last 20 years the results surprised me a little bit.

It was this research that lead me to make the following thesis about the Devils. Enforcers still have a role in the current NHL, but like any other role-player in the NHL they have had to evovle to stay productive. Furthermore, the Devils have not done a good job to find enforcers that can play 60+ games a season and still be able to contribute to the hockey that is played. I think that the Devils could do better in this regard and I will give some suggestions on what needs to be done at the end of this post.

Before I go on any further I want to stop and define what my definition of an enforcer is. To me, an enforcer is a player whose main purpose on a team is to get into fights to either spark his team or protect his teammates. He is a tough physical player who does not shy away from big hits and is not afraid to take minors or misconduct penalties if it means he can intimidate the other team or protect his teammates from being roughed up by the other team.

I do not consider players such as Sean Avery, Dan Carcillo, David Clarkson, Steve Downie, or Matt Cooke to be enforcers. They are agitators. They are guys who try to get under the others team skin and will fight when they have to. But they have other value to a team and that is an important distinction I want to make early on.

I am going to start off my analysis with Mr. Troy Crowder. Crowder was selected #108 overall in the 6th round by the New Jersey Devils in the 1986 Entry Draft. Troy Crowder was 6'4" and 238 lbs and was a force to be reckoned with when he dropped the gloves. Do yourself a favor and go to Hockey Fights and look up some of his fights, he wrecked some people. Now I know what you are saying. Your thinking "Yeah he could beat people up, but how did that help the team." So lets take alook at his stats for his first and only full season with the Devils, 1990-91.

I don't know about you, but those numbers are very acceptable from a 4th line player. They are great if his only skill is fighting. To put this in perspective Troy Crowder scored more goals in 90-91 then the following Devils forwards in 09-10: Jay Pandolfo, Rod Pelley, Ilkka Pikkarainen, Andrew Peters, Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond, and Vladimir Zharkov. All of these players played on the Devils 4th line for a good portion of the season. To prove my point that Troy Crowder was a statistically relevant member of the Devils, Dean McAmmond only scored 8 goals in the 09-10 season and everyone wants him to be resigned.

So what ever happened to good ole' Troy? Well, the Detroit Red Wings noticed his ungodlyness and signed him as a restricted-free agent. The arbitor decided to give the Devils Hugh "Randy" McKay as compensation, and well, the rest is history.

The next player I am going to display is by far my favorite player of all time, Mike Peluso. Peluso was selected #190 overall by the Devils in 1984 but was never signed. He signed with Chicago after he graduated college and was traded to the Devils by Ottawa in 1993. Mike was part of the "Crash Line" and anyone who remembers the first cup team in 1995 knows that Peluso was more than just a goon to the Devils. The man could actually play hockey.

See I told you he could play hockey. In the 3 season before he was traded in 96-97 Mike Peluso had atleast 10 pts and was a plus player. Hell, in 93-94 Peluso had a monster year. He racked up 20 pts, 238 PIMS and was +19. I would take that on my 4th line any day of the week and twice on sundays! The asterisk in the 94-95 season denotes that the season was shortened due to a strike. Mike Peluso also wins the award for most ironic image in all of sports as he, the tough guy, was seen crying on the bench as time dwindled down in game 4 of the 95 cup finals. But in Mike's defence, everyone in Jersey was crying.

The next tough guy on the list is KRZYSZTOF "THE POLISH HAMMER" OLIWA! Now this guy was tough! Only problem is that Hockey Fights doesn't have most of his fight videos. But trust me, he wrecked people. The guy was 6'5" and 235 lbs and he knew how to use it. But did he know how to use his stick and skates?

I'd say he knew how to play hockey in his first tour of duty with the Devils. He scored a couple of goals a year and he was a plus hockey player. People say +/- is a decieving statistic but I don't think it is when judging enforcers. They only get even strength time and they don't usually get to play with players that are going to inflate it one way or another. The fact that Oliwa was a plus player with the Devils shows that he was productive and belonged on the team.

Now I show you all this stuff about pre-lock out players to show you what a "good" enforcer looks like on the stat sheet. I will now show you what the Devils have been putting on the ice to fill the enforcer roll and lets see how these guys compare.

OUCH! Those numbers are not good! The Devils have not had a "true" enforcer that has gotten more than 2 pts or 150 PIMS in that time. Now yes, David Clarkson has racked up both points and PIMS but I will state it once again, he is not an enforcer. Looking at these numbers I can under stand why people think that enforcers are no longer viable, we haven't had one that has cracked the line up more than 60 times in one year since before 2003!

But this can't be the picture around the entire league, I mean there has to be some legitamite heavy wieght enforcers that are able to contribute and crack the line up, right? Well, lets take a look...

Right off the bat I can see some effective enforcers on this list. Its no secret that Jody Shelley and Brandon Prust were very effective players for the Rangers after they were acquired. Chris Neil had a carrer year and was definately effective for his team. Colton Orr also had a good year for Toronto. He scored 4 goals and was only a -4 while playing in Toronto, which is an accomplishment in itself.

How ever I promised a solution at the beginning of the post and so I will give it. Zach Stortini. The man is a physical beast. He is 6'3" and 220 lbs. He has put up atleast 10 pts in his last 3 seasons and managed to get a +3 while playing on Edmonton this year. I am going to repeat that last statistic: +3 for EDMONTON! Do you have any idea how hard that is to do? The only other Oiler to have a positive plus minus this past year was Dustin Penner, and he had to score 30+ goals in order to do it!

My secondary solution is George Parros, but that is purely because I want to see Parros and his big burly mustache beat the tar out of Daniel Carcillo and his pre-pubecent trash-stache.

MY CONCLUSION: Its still possible for the Devils to have an effective enforcer on their team that can contribute and not just fight. They have had enforcers that have done this in the past and there are enforcers in the league that do it today. The problem has been that the Devils have had "less than desirable" enforcers that could not do much besides fight. With the signing of Kovalchuk the Devils are going to have to have a player that will be willing to fight to protect our soon-to-be $11.5 million player. As interesting as this was to watch, it won't help us win if he is in the box the entire game. Can Clarkson protect Ilya and Zach? Yes he can, but he is becoming an important part of this team on the power play and we can't risk him getting a 10 minute misconduct or a game misconduct for 3rd-man-in.

Please let me know what you think. And now, I will leave you with a great moment in Devils fighting history.