Lightning prospect Grant Spada and Canadiens prospect Wesley Roulston dropped the gloves Saturday night in Guelph, and the OHL crowd got a throwback.
StingUpdates called it a potential tilt of the year candidate, listing Spada at 6-foot-6 and Roulston at 6-foot-4.
The frame shows two linesmen, including No. 48, wrapped around both players as they tumble to the ice together.
It took both officials just to get them apart, and even that looked like real work.
The league can say the game has moved past this kind of scrap. Scouts still write it down every single time, and so do the fans.
Watching two players that size lock up is like watching two refrigerators try to squeeze through the same hallway. Something has to give, and the walls usually lose.
Neither prospect appears in NHL numbers yet, so this is a glimpse of the future rather than a box-score story about the present.
Canadiens and Lightning fans got a preview of future toughness
Tampa Bay already knows a thing or two about that. Scott Sabourin dropped the mitts with Logan Stanley on Long Island Saturday, and the Lightning won 5-3.
Jon Cooper's group is now 4-1-0 and riding a four-game winning streak.
Montreal, meanwhile, just traded Jayden Struble and has seen Arber Xhekaj's name pop up in trade chatter.
If Xhekaj ever moves, the Canadiens would lose one of the few players on their roster who brings that kind of edge.
That makes Roulston's development a little more interesting for Kent Hughes and his scouting staff.
The Canadiens are 2-2-1 after Saturday's 1-0 shootout win over Detroit, thanks to a Jacob Fowler shutout.
Is this the kind of player Montreal wants more of, or a skill set the modern game is quietly phasing out?
The Lightning visit the Rangers on Tuesday, while Montreal hosts Buffalo the same night.
Spada and Roulston will both go back to junior hockey and keep developing. But on Saturday night in Guelph, they gave two NHL fan bases something to remember them by.
Should NHL teams still value toughness in their prospects?
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