Quoting: SammyT_51
Clifford drives play very well and has great possesion numbers throughout his career. He is also very effective defensively and was very good presence for Leafs. I like his game. And he was good presence on bottom-6 role, same as Engvall. Offensive side wasnt there, which is true, but he was solid in those games and helped the morale of the team.
Leafs have 2021 1st.. also.. Engvall wasnt the best defensive forward. Not even close. He was for a good chunk of those 48 games he played, but in second half of those games he disappeared defensively and offensively. Its his overall game that wasnt good. In any regard. I love how you say that Engvalls 17 game tenure should not be really taken that seriously but also saying that Clifford is league minimum player for Leafs because of his first 16 games with Leafs. I bet he would be better next year regardless of if he is on Leafs or not. I want him here.
Except that Engvall was the Leafs best defensive forward down the stretch, when he wasnt scoring. This was also when literally no one else in the bottom 6 was scoring either. And the 17 games is a weird obsession because players have game stretches like that all the time where they dont score and it's no big deal but it for some reason is for Engvall. And Clifford's offensive issues arnt just for his leafs tenure it\s the majority of his career.
Engvall also a big PKer for the leafs, Clifford averaged 8 seconds a game, which is actually more than he's averaged on the PK in the past 3 years. He's a league min player because he's a 10 min a game player who doesnt do special teams and does, at best, decent at driving the play forward.
Engvall does everything Clifford does, and more. That's why he's better. Unless you like watching him fight another 4th liner 3 or 4 times a year, Engvall wont do that.