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Tuesday, January 4, 2011

A look at our newest Duck: Maxim Lapierre



Last week the Ducks added some depth in the bottom-6, acquiring center Maxim Lapierre from the Montreal Canadiens for Brett Festerling and a 5th rounder in 2012. The first thing is that regardless, this was a low risk, potentially high reweard trade. We lost Festerling, which has no real affect on the Ducks' roster. It is very unlikely that he becomes anything more than a career AHLer, and we already have enough bottom pairing defensemen. Now, I didn't know a whole lot about Lapierre, so I did a bit of research. I started with a trip to YouTube, and found this video:
        I knew heading in that Lapierre has so far been a career 3/4th liner, and that he's known as an agitator. This is what I'm hoping he can bring to the table for the Ducks, as we do not have a player that attempts to get under the skin of the the opposing teams. Perry does this for us sometimes, with his occasional goalie running, but I would rather have him on the ice scoring goals. We have our enforcer in George Parros, but we really need a Sean Avery type player, and I hope Max can do this for us. From that video, his fighting skills don't look particularly great, he looked a bit like a girl trying to slap her sister in a few of those fights. But if he can make some guys frustrated and take penalties, I'll be very pleased. Lapierre has decent size, at 6'2 and 207 pounds. He was drafted in 2003, and has been playing up with the Habs since 2005. He has a career high of 15 goals and 28 points, and hasn't had less than 60 penalty minutes in three years. We can't expect too much from him offensively, but hopefully with his other skills, it won't be noticed.
        He will be hitting the ice tomorrow night for the first time wearing Kunitz's old #14, I hope he can bring some of the old spunk and fire Kunitz brought us. Let's keep this home stand rolling!

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