Can't miss kid scratched again.
I'm a big Fayne fan, hope he can shake off the rust in the pregame skate.
The eye test can be misleading, but so far, and granted it's reallllll early, but Hamilton and Brodin look to be in a higher class than Larsson.
I agree, it's a little disconcerting. But Hamilton's spent his whole life playing the North American game and Brodin didn't start impressing until he was paired with Suter. Still gotta be patient. Someone else posted recently that it took Hedman 3 or 4 years to start really looking good.
I'm so hired of hearing the Larsson comparisons to Brodin and Hamilton.
First of all, Hamilton is playing with Zdeno Chara and Brodin is playing with Ryan Suter, I would hope they would impress or as a matter of fact, I would hope any defenseman would impress alongside them two.
Hamilton and Brodin are in the boat Larsson was when he first played for the Devils in his draft year. They come in and play PP, PK, and naturally, they are going to impress and put up points. Devils did that with Larsson, if I recall correctly he was playing somewhere around 25 minutes a game his first five or six games.
Now, the Devils are being smart. They relied on him heavily, they've acknowledged his weaknesses, and this shortened season, they are using to focus and help those weaknesses. It's the same thing Lightning did with Hedman. He really didn't start tapping into his full potential until this year.
Add to that, Larsson is still 19 years old. He's a kid playing a man's game. I don't care how talented or how gifted any kid is, they are no where near as strong physically as any of the older men in this game. He doesn't look out of place at all, and don't forget he was playing in Europe where he really didn't need to work on his strength as it's not as important as the North American game. Wait until he finally starts becoming equal to these other players in his strength, and you will see his game take off.
