Tuesday, September 2, 2008

28 Profiles in 28 Days...The Legs that Feed the Wolf

Welcome back to TST's 28 profiles in 28 days. Here's the backstories of players previously profiled:
Kris Beech....The Unwanted One
Matt Cooke...The New Ruu
Sidney Crosby....The Chosen One
Pascal Dupuis….The Iceman
Ruslan Fedotenko….The Battletank
Eric Godard....The Goon
Tyler Kennedy....The Sparkplug
Evgeni Malkin....The Showstopper
Janne Pesonen...The Finnish Wildcard
Miroslav Satan...The Scoring Winger (Who isn't Hossa)
Jordan Staal....The Gronk


Basics
Player Name: Maxime Talbot
How Acquired: Drafted 234th overall in 2002 (8th round)
Position: Center
Age: 24 (25 in Feburary)
Contact Situation: Signed thru 2008-09 season, $700,000 (restricted free agent after this season)

History
Last Season Stats: 63 games played, 12 goals, 14 assists = 26 points...Playoffs 17 gp, 3g, 6a= 9p
Last Season Write-up: Talbot was another of the Penguins to miss a significant portion of time with a high ankle sprain, and despite the injury lingering throughout the season he still put up career numbers as he chugged along through the year. Talbot only scored 3 goals in the playoffs and one of them provided arguably the high point of the entire season.
Career Year Stats: (2006-07) Last season.


Outlook
Player progressing, in prime or regressing: Talbot's about in his prime.
Potential line-mates: Talbot is probably going to be the most versitale forward on the roster. HC Therrien showed this during the playoffs where he would switch things up and use Talbot on any line at any time to create a spark. It wouldn't shock us to see Talbot play with any of the top three lines in any of the three periods, depending on game situation. He's another natural center but he can play the wing as well.
"Best case scenario" stats: 82 games played 25 goals, 25 assists, 50 points...If everything went right, Talbot's a 20 goal scorer. If it goes perfect, he could net 25.
Notes: Plenty of NHL talent came out of the 8th round of the 2002 draft, in addition to Talbot, Dennis Wideman, Petr Prucha and Ryan Craig were also taken here.....We dubbed Talbot "The Legs that feed the wolf" after the famous Herb Brooks line. The line (like Talbot) doesn't totally make sense but it's about teamwork, hustle and being the best you can be. Fitting.
Interesting fact: Talbot's one of the most interesting people you'll ever hear about so anything about him could fit the bill. Talbot, to us, is in what Bill Simmons' calls the Tyson Zone. Maybe not in the scary/bizarre way that guys like Mike Tyson and Dennis Rodman are, but you get the point...Talbot has impersonated Sidney Crosby, he had the balls to be McLovin for television, he's played in national poker tournaments even though he jokes himself for being horrible, and he's won the Stanley Keg for crying out loud.

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