GDT: 2022-23 season game 18 LA Kings vs Calgary Flames @5:00pm 11/14/22

[mysterman2]

Neither Durzi or Spence have a strong enough offense that i would build my defense around them.
Actually neither of them would be on my team

Re Spence- pretty sure there isnt a team in the NHL that wouldn't want Spence on their roster. Has no flaws to his game apart from size. Hes a top 4 dman with a long career ahead of him.

Oh yeah....2nd on the Reign in points.

 

[Kurrilino]

Re Spence- pretty sure there isnt a team in the NHL that wouldn't want Spence on their roster. Has no flaws to his game apart from size. Hes a top 4 dman with a long career ahead of him.

Oh yeah....2nd on the Reign in points.

I really hope you are right.

I just don't see him being the answer to the next step.
Sure he could be top 4 on some teams but can he be top 4 on a cup contender?

I guess he just had a couple of games with the big club so far but the Edmonton series was brutal for him.
We played turtle defense which hurt his offense and on defense he was absolutely destroyed.

If we want the cup, we have a defense that can keep players like Rantanen, McDavid etc in check.
None of our defenders is able to do so especially not our undersized ones.

With that said, his game is not flawless.
His flaw is that he can't defend against top opposition which disqualifies him from top 4 defense.

Just my 2 cents and hope i am proven wrong

 

[Lt Dan]

I really hope you are right.

I just don't see him being the answer to the next step.
Sure he could be top 4 on some teams but can he be top 4 on a cup contender?

I guess he just had a couple of games with the big club so far but the Edmonton series was brutal for him.
We played turtle defense which hurt his offense and on defense he was absolutely destroyed.

If we want the cup, we have a defense that can keep players like Rantanen, McDavid etc in check.
None of our defenders is able to do so especially not our undersized ones.

With that said, his game is not flawless.
His flaw is that he can't defend against top opposition which disqualifies him from top 4 defense.

Just my 2 cents and hope i am proven wrong

Same thing happened with Voynov on his first call up.

One thing this org an eye zation is really good at it developing D.

I am on team Spence

 

[mysterman2]

With that said, his game is not flawless.
His flaw is that he can't defend against top opposition which disqualifies him from top 4 defense.

Just my 2 cents and hope i am proven wrong

Given his age and rookie status- any 21 year old that can jump into this as you described would be a phenom. Crapping on any young player with this criteria would apply to 90% of defensemen in the league at that age and very few DMEN would pass the test by your unrealistically high standards. His main flaw is what...hes not Drew Doughty?

 

[Kurrilino]

Given his age and rookie status- any 21 year old that can jump into this as you described would be a phenom. Crapping on any young player with this criteria would apply to 90% of defensemen in the league at that age and very few DMEN would pass the test by your unrealistically high standards. His main flaw is what...hes not Drew Doughty?

This is not about Drew Doughty, i see Doughty also unfit to hold those opponent players back.
It's also not my expectation right now. I don't see how Spence grows into a player that can prevent opponents top player from scoring, which would be his role as top 4.
I will give him the same treatment as everyone else and don't judge him until he is 24.
So we will see, hopefully he surprises me

 

[lumbergh]

Given his age and rookie status- any 21 year old that can jump into this as you described would be a phenom. Crapping on any young player with this criteria would apply to 90% of defensemen in the league at that age and very few DMEN would pass the test by your unrealistically high standards. His main flaw is what...hes not Drew Doughty?

That's funny you said that, because every time I saw Spence play I thought of him as mini-Doughty. He's just a couple inches shorter, and a bit calmer, but similar build and very very hockey smart.

 

[mysterman2]

That's funny you said that, because every time I saw Spence play I thought of him as mini-Doughty. He's just a couple inches shorter, and a bit calmer, but similar build and very very hockey smart.

Good call....I kind of think of him as Voynov as well in that there wasnt anything specifically that he was great at- but he was above average with all aspects of the game.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Good call....I kind of think of him as Voynov as well in that there wasnt anything specifically that he was great at- but he was above average with all aspects of the game.

I see Spurgeon and thus Voynov similary as well, they ahve every tool but size and that's what keeps them from being true #1 style dmen, but they're still good defensively, just have ot use positioning and leverage rather than abuse and weardown.