TOTW Jones (88) Review

Games played were in Div. 2 and Div. 1 against equally skilled opponents with semi-stacked squads (Richards high without base players).

He played on my second d line as a RD, on the second powerplay unit as a LD with Hero Redden.

Active Synergies are: Cycle Game, Team Wheel, Team Shot Block, It’s a Trap

Stats: 10 GP; 3 G, 7 A, 10 Pts, 2 PIM, +14

Card link: https://hutdb.net/17/view/12304 His synergy: 2 It’s a Trap, 1 Iron Shins (+4 Def. Awareness, Shot Block, Durability)

Skating: 8.5/10 For a big man (6’4’’), he skates very well (90/90, 93/93 with TW). Being 200lbs surely helps to not slow him down too much. He is a slick skater that is surprisingly fast. How fast? Comparable to Rob Blake. With the added plus of having great skating abilities all around, he really does feel exceptionally good.

Defense: 9.5/10 I really like the long reach and the high stick check rating (92, 95 with T). He is in position all the time (92 def. awareness, 99 with T and IS), puts his big body in the shot lanes (92 shot block, 99 with SB and IS) and lays out the body when needed (88 body check, 90 strength). Excluding the bigger bodies (Lindros, Getzlaf, etc.), I haven’t met anyone I couldn’t knock off the puck even though I must admit I poke check way more than I hit with him. His long reach really gets the job done.

Passing: 8.5/10 Never had any problems with his passing. In fact, I like it as much as any of my other top 3 defensemen. My only problem really remains in the hands. Hands: 7.5/10 Hand-eye is good enough as well as puck control but I had a tough time having success with dekes. It is definitely a thing to avoid with him. It’s a good thing he has a high balance (95 with SB) and a long reach.

Shooting: 7.5/10 The problem really remains in accuracy but I still managed to score 3 goals in 10 games which is surprising considering. His power was surprisingly good (probably because of 90 strength rating with the 92 SSP) and I had no problem getting a strong shot off.

Senses: 8/10 Really good positioning mixed with a 82 aggressiveness means he’ll be where you want him to be: at the blue line. Conclusion: I managed to snag him at 16k 2 days ago and I was really pleased. He usually goes around 35k nowadays and even saw him hovering 40-50k before the crash. I used him to round out IS and T as a 6th D but bumped him up to 4th D with Redden because he played really well for me. A really good pickup for the price. As of now, he made the team as a bottom pair righty.

If you have questions or comments, please leave one in the comment section. Cheers!