I’ll be upfront, I had never heard of Cody Hodgson before the Sabres acquired him. I’m also pretty sure that 3/4’s of my Twitter feed never noticed him playing when watching Vancouver games. In the interest of finding out what type of player we have here, I reached out to the Vancouver boys over at Nucks Misconduct to see what the deal is with Cody Hodgson.
1) What type of player is Hodgson? He’s a point machine, just as adept passing on the rush as he is rippling the twine. He anchored our third line this season and had some great success with limited minutes. If he’s given top six responsibilities in Buffalo and can flourish with good wingers, he’ll be a great asset.
2) Why was be buried on the depth chart in Vancouver? Can he be a number one center? Henrik Sedin and Ryan Kesler answer the first question. He would have to switch to wing if he wanted to crack the top six and that wasn’t happening. He can probably develop into a number one center, but that remains to be seen. He’s been compared to centers from Steve Yzerman to Trevor Linden (clearly we’re a little biased on that front) but he needs a few more seasons of sustained success before then.
3) Lindy Ruff wants guys who play well in the defensive zone. Can Hodgson do that? That’s his biggest weakness. He played some sheltered minutes in Vancouver and it was clear as the months rolled by that Vigneault didn’t trust him against the best the opposition thrown at the Canucks. This is where Buffalo needs to work with him the most and remains the biggest question mark for him to break out of a checking center to a 1LC.
4) What are Hodgson’s strengths and weaknesses? Great hands and vision. He’s creative and, frankly, fun to watch when he’s switched on. Again you’ll like him and his wingers will love him when the points begin to stack up. But he’s not terribly big nor “gritty” (I hate that word) and can be bulled off the puck by bigger defenders. Not exactly the stuff that makes an ideal 1LC either.
5) How do you guys feel about the trade? Since Hodgson’s development is ahead of Kassian’s and we basically lost a point producer for a developmental project, it’s not the best feeling. We lost the better player of the two right now. However once you consider Hodgson’s sheltered minutes and the fact Kassian projects to be a unique type of talent, it feels much better. This trade has the possibility of being a monumental moment in the months and years to come or bite us right in the ass. Tough to say at the moment, but I’m optimistic. Gillis hasn’t lead us astray too often.
6) Is he more of a set-up man or a pure scorer? Probably more of a set-up guy, but he’s got good hands. He’ll score his share.
7) Can you tell me anything interesting about Alexander Sulzer? Ha, interesting? Truth is we barely saw him and he was buried on our depth charts, as he was with Nashville before us. He may be serviceable on a bottom pairing, but cracking the line-up and sticking is the toughest part. He has yet to do that at the NHL level.
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