If we needed an enforcer and an enforcer only, we would have kept Andre Roy, or brought up one of the two thugs we have down in Wilkes-Barre. But we didn’t. Laraque has offensive talent. He is a downright fabulous forechecker. He will cause problems for other teams, outside of coming in to bitch slap opponents.
His fighting is a definite bonus, but I wouldn’t expect him to come in and fight immediately. He is sort of like having nuclear missiles. Nobody fucks with someone with nukes because they are afraid of the retaliation. This is the same thing.
As far as the defense goes, it needs strengthened for sure, but nothing that they can do right now is going to help that. They cut the fat last year getting rid of Tarnstrom and Jackman, they’ll do the same this year with Welch (whom I really cooled on) and Melichar or Nasreddine. Expect Letang to play major minutes next year and be a force.