Justin Kovacs

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Games Played
League – 53
Challenge Cup – 7

Total Goals: 15 / Total Assists: 32 / Total PIMs: 14

Joe Balm
Started well but his season has gone down hill drastically. I haven’t seen a good performance from him since October.  For the majority of the season he has been riding on Guptill’s coat tails. Definitely don’t want back.

Sam Balm
Another player who has had a disappointing season and missing from the line-up towards the end of the season with no explanation as to why.  When has was in the line-up he would often go missing for large periods of the game and had little to no impact.  The numbers he has put up are inflated given the time he spent on a line with Guptill. A solid ‘no’ on the re-signing front.

Antoine Marie-Jeanne
Perhaps the epitome of the Panthers season.  At the beginning looked a real gem, by the end he wasn’t even being used as a co-commentator.  Plenty of rumours around as to why, I’m not “in the know” so unless either he or the club’s spokeswoman comes out and says, we’ll probably never know why he was so unceremoniously dropped.

Adam Reddish
I’ve struggled all season to understand what Kovacs game is all about and I’m still no wiser now.  Billed as a goalscorer (he briefly was the League’s top points scorer after the first few weeks), that was something he failed to consistently do throughout the year.  Clearly a guy with good hands and a dangerous shot, he simply didn’t use these skills nearly enough to make any sort of meaningful impact and help take the burden of primary goal scoring off Guptill’s shoulders.  What was evident was his tendency to overplay the puck, and on many occasions he’d fail to make a pass when that was the better option, instead taking the shot long after the netminder was set.  Like many players, Kovacs came across as an enigma – we knew he had talent, but for whatever reason it didn’t show as much as it should have.  Not quite sure where he was at the back end of the season after being a scratch on multiple occasions.

Tina Taylor
Apparently out of favour with both of Panthers Head Coaches this season, more apparent when the latter one dropped him for about a month so you could be forgiven for thinking, “Who?”.  Had a fair few assists but in terms of all round contribution to a game, not a particularly memorable player sadly.