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Its all opinion. Thousands of top level skaters in history started on whatever random shape the blade came out of the box, continued with whatever shape it morphed into through repeated sharpenings, and then back to another random profile when they got new skates. What may seem intuitive may in fact be correct or it may end up being wrong. There are lots of examples where people have success doing the opposite of “conventional wisdom”. Until you have a body of actual data, it will continue to be opinion-based.

CCM doesn't have a patent on one-piece boots overall. They have patent over a particular method of construction. So does True. So does Bauer: they own the Mako and MLX IP. There is no should/should not, only personal preference. One could work with you and make a recommendation if you're not sure. But there's no blanket statement about what to do. Kovalchuk: wrapped upper eyelets but creased to hell. It's always worked great for him. Shane Wright, the complete opposite (at least in Bauer, haven't been able to find a clear shot of his Trues that isn't too dark to see any detail). It's all up to the skater and the skates having a good relationship. Your images didn't match at all what I was expecting from your description. That's a bit of wrap, but nothing crazy. Looks very normal. Just a slight inclination from the sidewalls toward the midline of the boot.

They definitely are longer than my Jofas! It's hard to believe that I used to wear wrist slash guards because there was so much space between most elbows and the short-cuff gloves that I liked. Times have changed. Fortunately, my Eagle PPFs have a very short cuff. Even with that, it's close. I wish the Warrior elbows were about a half inch shorter, particularly because I don't play in the chippiest league. That said, I think the mobility should be ok for me. And, the off chance of a bit of cuff brushing on pad seems worth the general advantage in flexibility that the Warriors seem to have over every other elbow pad I tried. If there were a comfortable and flexible pad that exposed a bit of forearm, I'd gladly go with that. But all of the smaller pads I tried also weren't very comfortable and actually felt more restrictive than the Warriors. Maybe the STX Surgeons that folks have recommended would do the trick?

That's why you gotta zero those cuffs buddy