Souray Out, Fistric In

The Anaheim Ducks have signed defenseman Mark Fistric

I’m not going to redo work others have done, so here’s the deets about Sheldon Souray. As Eric Stephens put out there, "Appears that Ducks kept Souray injury under wraps so as to not be in position of weakness for trade/sign in looking to add d-man."

James Mirtle gives some perspective to Souray's injury: "The good news with Souray is he injured his right wrist and not the left, which he's had surgery on already at least five times."

So who is Mark Fistric, the guy the Ducks signed to fill in for Souray?

Put bluntly: he’s a big body. His possession numbers are positive, but that’s a little misleading in this case because he doesn’t always handle the puck well. His passes aren’t extremely crisp either. I’d venture to guess his possession numbers come from it being hard to get the puck from him and less that he drives possession, per se.

But Fistric hits, he defends capably, he seems to slot alongside guys who are more fleet of foot without problem. The Ducks have a few of those on the roster.

And if nothing else, he can’t possibly be worse than Bryan Allen.

[Ed. Note:  Good thing Murray intentionally left a spot for Sami Vatanen, right? -CK]