IT's amazing to see Fabbro as a targeted player. Just a few years ago he was considered a major project and someone Nashville should abandon. Goes to show you how long defensemen can take to develop.
Just goes to show how terribly poor we are at RHD. While I’d much rather have an Ekblad or Pionk, they’re going to get 6+ years and be bad in the last 3, right when we’re approaching competitive status. With Fabbro or Borgen you can probably get them for 3-4 years. They’re also both quite a bit better than Ceci IMO.
I actually quite like Theodore and it would be fun to see a real good offensive dman to play with Celebrini and Smith, but he’ll cost the most, is mediocre defensively and will be headed down the backside of his career.
If you’re going to overpay for a top 4 Dman on a long term contract, do it when the team is ready. 3-4 years from now when Celebrini, Eklund, Smith, and Askarov are locked in to long term contracts you can go after the big UFA prizes.
I also wouldn’t mind picking up Liljigren this year and Trouba off waivers next summer. Trouba can eat minutes, is way overpaid but he’d only be on the books for a year. Could also see him being worth a 2nd at next years deadline for someone looking to upgrade their third pairing.
Wouldn’t mind the defense looking like
Walman-Borden/Fabbro
Ferraro-Trouba
Muk-Liljigren
Thrun/Benning
Compared to Ferraro, Vlasic, Boroughs, Thrun, Addison, Emberson, and Rutta, it’s gone from AHL caliber to mediocre NHL caliber in two years.
Compared to the rest of our dmen, Walman looks like a legit top 4 guy. It’ll be interesting to see if he can prove to be/grow into a guy you want in the top 4 on a playoff team. If not he’s a nice placeholder.