Penguins rookie defenseman Deryk Engelland is quickly making a name for himself as one of the toughest customers in the NHL, already dropping the gloves with heavyweights Colton Orr and Jody Shelley, and winning both fights.
“It’s got me to where I am now,” Engelland said. “For my style of game it’s a huge quality.”
When the 28-year-old tough guy talks about getting to where is now, he’s referring to the years he has spent battling his way up through the ranks of the ECHL and AHL, eventually landing a spot with the Penguins to begin the 2010-11 season.
At 6-foot-2, 202-pounds, Engelland is not the biggest guy on the ice, but manages to hold his own against the NHL’s purebred brawlers.
“I’m a little more technical I guess,” Engelland said about his ability to take on bigger players. “I don’t just hold and throw. I try to tie up a little bit.”
Engelland landed a solid knockout punch against Toronto’s Colton Orr, and he managed to open a large cut over the eye of Jody Shelley during Pittsburgh’s latest tilt against the Flyers.
“It’s a compliment to me,” Engelland said about defeating some of the NHL’s best fighters. “To see a guy like that, just like Orr, to get a good solid punch in and be able to split a guy like that open is huge. You don’t see it often I guess, but it’s nice to see from me.”
Engelland is proving to be one fearless asset to the Penguins. Teams around the league are taking note with No. 5 roaming the blue line in Pittsburgh. He says it’s something that comes automatically to him.
“I just go out and try not to think about it too much,” Engelland said. “When I think I (feel that) I do worse. When it happens, it happens.
Join the Discussion:
»