who is jordan leopold?

july 1st is generally regarded as christmas day for hockey fans as gm's from throughout the league present gifts for their fans in the form of free agent signings...some years the "glamour-toys" are highly-desired and overly expensive...outside of ilya kovalchuk, july 1, 2010 was less-than-stellar in regards to free agents...lots bicycles, coats and socks...

as a sabres-fan, not much should be expected on that day...darcy regier is a firm believer in building through the draft augmenting that by jumping into the "secondary" fa-market for bargains...and, as par for the course, regier hit target looking for quality at a less-than-premium price...that's where jordan leopold comes in...

initially, when they announced the leopold signing, it was--really?...ummm...who?...looking back at my initial reactions from the buffalo news sabres blog, it was yet another vanilla player signed by a vanilla gm...

when i see the "puck-mover" tag on a player, it denotes a player who is neither a shut-down d-man, nor is he a tough/gritty shot-blocker; basically someone who has some defensive liabilities...the worth of the "puck-mover" lies in his offensive abilities...unfortunately, it's a player who does not have the end-to-end rush capabilities of a brian campbell, the finish of an elite scorer like mike green, or the pp acumen of a sergei gonchar...

the "puck-mover" provides enough skill to get the puck out of his own end, either by hitting a forward with a quick, accurate pass or moving it to center on his own...his +/- will be dependent upon his team, only hitting a solid positive number on upper-echelon teams...in most cases, though, he'll probably hover around negative single-digits to zero (dmitri kalinin comes to mind)...he does have enough skill to play on the pp and contribute on the second unit and should probably get you anywhere from 30-40 points throughout the year...

an all-around jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none, the "puck-mover" usually plays top-four/2nd-pairing minutes and will play in all situations including time on the 2nd-unit pp and pk...he'll eat up 20+ minutes and have the capability to play against the oppositions top-lines when needed without a significant drop-off from the top-pairing...

that's pretty much what the sabres have in jordan leopold...

terms like "solid in his defensive positioning," "great outlet passes," "skates well," "joins the rush,"  "consistent production" and even "underrated" have been used to describe the positives...on the negative side:  "doesn't hit," "hasn't lived up to his offensive potential" and  "career minus +/-"...and, the biggie "has struggled to stay healthy lately"

before injuries, leopold was a key defensive cog in the 2004 stanley cup run for the calgary flames who lost to the tampa bay lightning in seven games, his second year in the league (btw, steve montador was on the third-pairing for the flames as well)...

his stat-line in the playoffs as a second-pairing d-man that year: 
--26 games, zero goals, 10 assists (6 pp,) +5, 6 pim
--toi/avg:  25:41 (2nd amongst calgary d-men,) 3:39 pp (1st,) 3:20 sh (4th)

in the finals:
gm one, 4-1 win:  19:38 toi (2:52pp, 3:56pk,) even +/-, 0 pts, no pim
gm two, 4-1 loss:  20:53 (7:01, 6:34,) -1, 0 pts, no pim
gm three, 3-0 win:  23:56 (3:14, 4:17,) even, 1 asst (secondary, pp,) no pim
gm four, 1-0 loss:  25:43 (2:13, 3:33,) even, 0 pts, no pim
gm five,  3-2 win (ot):  28:55 (:44, :58,) +1, 0 pts, no pim
gm six, 3-2 loss (2ot):  33:30 (3:17, 3:01,) -1, 0 pts, 2pim
game seven, 2-1 loss:  22:39 (1:50, 4:31,) even, 1 assist (only assist on pp goal,) no pim...

post lock-out saw leopold as a solid trade-commodity as he went from calgary to colorado back to calgary then to florida and eventually to pittsburgh at the trade deadline in 2010...

sprinkled in that time-period were a myriad of injuries from groin, hip and wrist ailments to a "head injury" in 2008 culminating with the concussion in the 2010 playoffs on a well-documented hit from andy sutton...

so why did regier go after leopold july 1st?...well, he needed a top-four replacement for the departed hank tallinder and toni lydman...but why leopold?

it seems to fit the "darcy-mold" (a mold of which i'm really tired of)--a skilled player who can skate, a d-man who can get the puck out of the zone, enough offense to contribute, the flexibility to play in all situations, and enough defensive prowess as to not be a defensive liability...plus, and this is a big one, leopold wanted to come to buffalo...

a former minnesota gopher, leopold contacted fellow-alum thomas vanek about buffalo...vanek gave the area rave reviews for family life...in fact leopold's wife contacted vanek's wife as well..."I’m looking for a spot that’s good for the family, and my kids have fun while we go out and strive for goals," he said... "I think it was the whole package for myself, my family, hockey – for what I was looking for, Buffalo was a good spot for me."

this wasn't the first time that family came into play when leopold needed to decide upon his future...back in july, 2009 leopold re-upped with the florida panthers on a one-year deal having "turned down longer-term offers and more money from other clubs" because, he "didn't think other interested teams were 'the right fit for my family.'"

with leopold wanting to sign with buffalo and the sabres needing a top-four d-man, the three year/$9m deal was easily consummated...

for the sabres, is a solid, if unspectacular, 2nd-pairing d-man who can play in all situations worth $3m per year?...will his "puck-moving" skills/point-play on the pp generate more offensive production?...is regier taking a gamble considering leopold's recent history of concussions?...am i convinced?

i'll stick with my "vanilla-player" initial reaction, although i've tempered my stance a bit (the bitterness of not landing volchenkov having subsided) and am looking at leopold as a compliment to craig rivet on the second-pairing...a defensive version (if you will) of jochen hecht, a player villified for his production/price ratio, yet a player who, imo, has more value than given credit for...

i think that's what we'll see with leopold...having him on the second-pairing with  rivet, having him healthy and playing a system where he'll fit in, and having his family situation stabilized may get him back to the form he showed back in 2003/04 with the flames...

and, if that's the case, then it's a good thing