Ducks DVM
sowcufucakky
Vaakanainen was good with Gudas (so was every other youngster). Vaakanainen was considerably less good away from Gudas.I don’t need to address any of that because I don’t want the youth playing above where they should be and I believe you can do that with or without Fowler here.
I’d like to point out that Vaakanainen had a good season and should be playing too. He’s the forgotten man on these boards and by the team right now but he shouldn’t be.
My defense after a Fowler trade would be:
LaCombe-Gudas
Mintyukov-Dumolin
Vaakanainen-Luneau
it’s really not that different than it is right now.
Zellweger starts in the AHL and gets called up after the 1st injury.
Again, I don’t understand this massive freak out about kids being shoe horned into roles if Fowler is gone.
I also think it’s important to note that Fowler is no where near the same player he was from 2013-2020. People conveniently leave that part out.
Gudas’ play fell off dramatically as his numbers created 19 minutes - he clearly didn’t have the stamina, nor the physicality to his game at 20 minutes that he does at 18.
Replacing Fowler with Vaakanainen is absolutely a step backwards, at least right now.
Side note (not saying this is you) - the people saying he’s a decent mid-pairing defenseman and wanting to replace him with a bottom pairing guy, I do not get. Nor do I get how the typical 2nds you’d expect for a mid pairing guy is going to make the team better before the current crop is well into their 7-8 year contracts. It’s not addition by subtraction until you have players who give actually proven they are ready to be given the responsibility, and are somehow immune to the sophomore slump.