Rob The Hockey Guy

Today on this not so gorgeous Saturday I battle what is either the start of a cold, or a hangover. But either way, here is today’s UFA of the Day. It addresses something I haven’t written about yet. Toughness. Here is Brandon Prust in today’s UFA of the Day.

Name: Brandon Prust

Age: 27

Size: 6’2″, 192 Lbs

Why the Canucks might want him: Toughness. If you want to beef up that fourth line then I would say that Brand Prust is a great addition. He plays a simple game, he’s hard working and he stands up for his team mates. Not noted for his soft hands or goal scoring, he has been able to put a few pucks in the back of the net. He had 13 goals in 2010-2011. He kills penalties, too. Something not a lot of people would think he’s capable of. Not only does he kill penalties, but he occasionally chips in with a short handed goal now and again. In 2010-2011 he had five of them. Just two last season. He’s also a good locker room guy and he’s that interesting blend of toughness, tenacity (and dare I say truculence) that fourth lines seems to be having these days. Look at the Kings fourth line. Tough and hard to play against. In my opinion, that’s the model fourth line and I think Brandon Prust compliments that very nicely.

Why the Canucks might not want him: For all of the reasons why they would want him, 29 other teams might as well, and in that you would start a bidding war and probably end up paying Prust more than he’s actually worth. The past two seasons with the Rangers, Prust was making $800,000 per year. I would expect that number to increase greatly. Adding to that, there’s the occasional bad penalty. Prust can be a hot head and from time to time that gets the better of him. Also, the Canucks wouldn’t have qualified Dale Weise if they didn’t think that he was going to be an impact player. It never hurts to have a couple of these guys though.

What I would do: I would give Prust a reasonable raise and a decent term. For a guy who’s used to playing for under a million and around two years, I think what is fair is 3 years, $1.6 million per year. It’s reasonable, maybe a little reasonable for a guy who plays roughly 10-13 minutes a night, but it also gives him security in the length of the deal and adds a great deal of toughness to the team that maybe hasn’t been on the fourth line in sometime.

X-Factor: Watching the 24/7 series this past season, Prust grew on me a little. I don’t know if it was because of his hard working attitude, or his massive and not necessarily attractive under bite. But I like Prust and I think he would fit well on that fourth line.

Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter. Mitch_SBMedia