It's not a secret (and we have touched on it in the past) that Pierre Gauthier and Jacques Martin are trying to build a team built on speed and skill up front and veteran leadership at the back. A definite bonus is if a player has been an established or proven winner throughout his career.
This blueprint has looked very promising that it can and will deliver results in the post-lockout NHL. Clearly though, there have been some exceptions especially when it came to filling in the role of 4th line center. Starting with Bryan Smolinski, continuing through to Glen Metropolit, and last year's foray with Jeff Halpern. All of those signings ended up working albeit with varying levels of success.
The problem here is that all of those guys were signed to fill a lessor role knowing that they had lost a step (or two) due to age and they were willing to do whatever was being asked of them in order to remain in the NHL. I'm not sure that same scenario would play out as smoothly with Chris Drury.
