Amy Johnson

He's strong defensively.

He has a good stick.

He excels on face-offs and he's a smart player.

He's someone every team would love to add to their roster.

He'll help us on the penalty kill and adds a lot of depth to our team.

So once again, we're already hearing a player echoing

They're not saying he's a sniper, he's got great hands, he's a pure goal scorer.

That's not what they're saying.

They're talking about those other little areas that all require puck protection and goal protection when they're talking about Phil Deneau.

Brendan Gallagher was asked, you know, Brendan Gallagher has played with Phil Deneau, and he was asked what his thoughts were on the return of his former teammate.

And I think it'll be interesting to see how he's deployed once he finally does make it into the lineup probably next week.

But perhaps having Ken...

Young players like Uri Slivkovsky, who has had some trouble with their defensive game over the past week or so, can they pick up some things from a guy like Phil Deneau being on the roster?

Time will tell with that, but those could also be the other advantages to having someone like Phil Deneau back in the lineup.

So looking forward to seeing what his addition does on the forward core for the defensive, that 200-foot game for the forwards.

Now, once you take another step back onto the ice to the actual defensive core...

We have to talk about, and you alluded to this in the first segment, he was your honorable mention, we have to talk about the decision, we just talked about the decision to bring Phil Deneau into the fold.

Now we have to talk about the decision to have increased usage of Adam Engstrom because this is going to significantly play an impact on the team's overall defense right now.

And as he is trusted with a bit more responsibility, given increased ice time and settling into a kind of a new look of a role for him, Adam Engstrom's confidence is certainly settling in right alongside it.

Now, the third aspect of this new focus on the defensive part of the team's identity that's now come into the spotlight is, of course, in the crease.