GDT: Around The League 24/25. Preseason ends, the regular season begins!!

[BlackDogg]

 

[Oilhawks]

Buffalo will always be a mess. But Clouder is killing it over there. Phantom assist on another goal too due to his always good backchecking and defensive positioning.

It's not really a question as to whether McLeod is a solid player...he is. The knock on him is having balls of a church mouse and not getting into the dirty areas consistently (particularly for a middle 6 talent).

He was putrid in the playoffs, it pretty much sealed it, that and needing to free up cap.

Edit: I was a big fan of the guy (until last playoffs). I have a puck signed by him...lol

 

[TheNumber4]

It's not really a question as to whether McLeod is a solid player...he is. The knock on him is having balls of a church mouse and not getting into the dirty areas consistently (particularly for a middle 6 talent).

He was putrid in the playoffs, it pretty much sealed it, that and needing to free up cap.

Edit: I was a big fan of the guy (until last playoffs). I have a puck signed by him...lol

He’s a good player yes. His wasn’t physical at all. But I think people are discounting what he was good at, for the one thing he wasn’t good at.

He was fast and great defensively. He could saw off and win his possession battles with what he was good at. So he got the job done and still had untapped offensive potential. If he gets the job done does it really matter if he didn’t finish a check here or there? There’s other ways of defending besides being a bruiser. There’s other ways of forechecking besides being a bruiser.

We could do a lot worse in our bottom 6 and have. And most likely will again as Henrique and Ryan age out.

 

[MessierII]

He’s a good player yes. His wasn’t physical at all. But I think people are discounting what he was good at, for the one thing he wasn’t good at.

He was fast and great defensively. He could saw off and win his possession battles with what he was good at. So he got the job done and still had untapped offensive potential. If he gets the job done does it really matter if he didn’t finish a check here or there? There’s other ways of defending besides being a bruiser. There’s other ways of forechecking besides being a bruiser.

We could do a lot worse in our bottom 6 and have. And most likely will again as Henrique and Ryan age out.

Think of what savioe will do in the years to come. He will contribute way more to this team than McLeod ever did.

 

[Oilhawks]

He’s a good player yes. His wasn’t physical at all. But I think people are discounting what he was good at, for the one thing he wasn’t good at.

He was fast and great defensively. He could saw off and win his possession battles with what he was good at. So he got the job done and still had untapped offensive potential. If he gets the job done does it really matter if he didn’t finish a check here or there? There’s other ways of defending besides being a bruiser. There’s other ways of forechecking besides being a bruiser.

We could do a lot worse in our bottom 6 and have. And most likely will again as Henrique and Ryan age out.

I think if he was making about half what he is (maybe a bit more), they would have kept him (even though arguably he was one of the worst Oilers in the playoffs, and again, saying this as a fan of the player).

If he was ready to take on 3C duties, they may have kept him and passed on Henrique. Henrique will probably continue to be a good player through his contract. He is on a steal of a deal. It doesn't matter that Ryan will age out, they can sign a solid league minimum player to replace him, or have someone bubble up from the AHL. McLeod replacing Ryan at 2.1M as the 4C would have been a mistake. It's far too much to spend on a 4C. They are supposed to have an analytics department partly to help find solid league minimum players.

Personally, I "miss" McLeod the most. Solid dude, seemed well-liked. Holloway is an idiot, and I lost all respect for him letting himself get played like he did (sure he's making more but he clearly wanted to stay). Broberg is a vindictive asshat, and I wish him the worst. I was excited by the player but he was inconsistent and like JP, made demands of icetime before earning it.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

the amount of excuses around here to dismiss his play right now is wild, although not surprising
small sample size sure, but if he were doing that here this here...people would be ecstatic

I'm out on the Broberg discussion. I hope he fails in St. Louis (but feel he won't). The playoff advance stat argument gets overblown. Reality was Broberg had a heavily weighted 55.7% defensive zone start including against a Panthers team that pushed every team back in playoffs 43.3% OZ 38.9% DZ - both 93 percentile while essentially maintaining their dominant regular season NHL Edge Zone play 44.9% OZ 37.4% DZ - both 96 percentile.

The Oilers playoffs 41.6% OZ 75 percentile and 40.9 DZ 56 percentile dropped from regular season 43.9% OZ 93 percentile and 38.6% DZ 90 percentile.

The link below gives a pretty fair picture of Broberg from a professional source who was a known skeptic on the player in his draft year (including a Game 1 Stanley Cup Final Broberg was 3 in d minutes played with 1:40 PK minutes and +/-0 in a diamond cutter massive game. Nurse got hurt in game 2 and Broberg's toi reduced as the series went on but heavy defensive deployment and PK time reinforce the coaching staff's trust in Game 1 of the biggest series of their lives. Shouldn't be shocking that advance stats don't fully capture the deployment and usage heavily weighted to own zone play against an opponent that bent its opposition with dominating o-zone territorial play.

How good is Philip Broberg? (throws in a solid Bruce Curlock tweet about Knoblauch trust in a Bouchard Broberg pairing late into Game 1).

Hope the player fails. But St. Louis has placed him in a situation to succeed with play on his strong side with a reliable veteran d-partner, and deployment tilting to 52.3% favourable o-zone starts. Now he's getting some favourable offensive situational play.

Last I'll say on this. I actually hope the ex-Oilers watch will end. And reinforce that I hope both Broberg and Holloway fail in their reset opportunity invested by St. Louis.

 

[Oilhawks]

I'm out on the Broberg discussion. I hope he fails in St. Louis (but feel he won't). The playoff advance stat argument gets overblown. Reality was Broberg had a heavily weighted 55.7% defensive zone start including against a Panthers team that pushed every team back in playoffs 43.3% OZ 38.9% DZ - both 93 percentile while essentially maintaining their dominant regular season NHL Edge Zone play 44.9% OZ 37.4% DZ - both 96 percentile.

The Oilers playoffs 41.6% OZ 75 percentile and 40.9 DZ 56 percentile dropped from regular season 43.9% OZ 93 percentile and 38.6% DZ 90 percentile.

This link gives a pretty fair picture of Broberg from a professional source who was a known skeptic on the player in his draft year (including a Game 1 Stanley Cup Final Broberg was 3 in d minutes played with 1:40 PK minutes and +/-0 in a diamond cutter massive game. Nurse got hurt in game 2 and Broberg's toi reduced as the series went on but heavy defensive deployment and PK time reinforce the coaching staff's trust in Game 1 of the biggest series of their lives. Shouldn't be shocking that advance stats don't fully capture the deployment and usage heavily weighted to own zone play against an opponent that bent its opposition with dominating o-zone territorial play.

How good is Philip Broberg? (throws in a solid Bruce Curlock tweet about Knoblauch trust in a Bouchard Broberg pairing late into Game 1).

Hope the player fails. But St. Louis has placed him in a situation to succeed with play on his strong side with a reliable veteran d-partner, and deployment tilting to 52.3% favourable o-zone starts. Now he's getting some favourable offensive situational play.

Last I'll say on this. I actually hope the ex-Oilers watch will end. And reinforce that I hope both Broberg and Holloway fail in their reset opportunity invested by St. Louis.

Haven't checked tonight, but his advanced stats haven't looked great this season either.

Perhaps he bucks the trend the rest of the season, but wheels tend to fall off once you "roll the dice" enough. Unless he manages to put it all together.

It's definitely easier for him to get the ice time he needs on a shit Blues team, so a solid gamble in that sense

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Haven't checked tonight, but his advanced stats haven't looked great this season either.

Perhaps he bucks the trend the rest of the season, but wheels tend to fall off once you "roll the dice" enough. Unless he manages to put it all together.

It's definitely easier for him to get the ice time he needs on a shit Blues team, so a solid gamble in that sense

I think there are gaps in advance stats and what they can inform about individual play. I like them for trending on team play but feel they require more context when making conclusions on individual play within a high speed, high random collision sport. The actual numbers of his Game 1 Stanley Cup playoffs were solid given opposition and deployment usage by an information based head coach. Lots of trust to weight this young player heavily with own zone starts in Stanley Cup Final play.

Again, will reiterate I hope the player fails.

 

[Oilhawks]

I think there are gaps in advance stats and what they can inform about individual play. I like them for trending on team play but feel they require more context when making conclusions on individual play within a high speed, high random collision sport. The actual numbers of his Game 1 Stanley Cup playoffs were solid given opposition and deployment usage by an information based head coach. Lots of trust to weight this young player heavily with own zone starts in Stanley Cup Final play.

Again, will reiterate I hope the player fails.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter if he ends up being a good player or not. They couldn’t afford him, and he decided (his right) to accept a premature and predatory offer sheet from a bubble team.

We live in a cap world, and these are the consequences

 

[Old Boys Club]

I think there are gaps in advance stats and what they can inform about individual play. I like them for trending on team play but feel they require more context when making conclusions on individual play within a high speed, high random collision sport. The actual numbers of his Game 1 Stanley Cup playoffs were solid given opposition and deployment usage by an information based head coach. Lots of trust to weight this young player heavily with own zone starts in Stanley Cup Final play.

Again, will reiterate I hope the player fails.

This is his sink or swim moment. He's getting top 4 d time and pay, but also all that comes with it. So far, STL is still sheltering him away from top matchups and he is still sub-par chance suppression wise. Boxcars are good, but when goaltending inevitably stabilizes closer to mean getting out chanced 2:1 high danger wise isn't going to cut it, especially with him getting more o-zone push.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

This is his sink or swim moment. He's getting top 4 d time and pay, but also all that comes with it. So far, STL is still sheltering him away from top matchups and he is still sub-par chance suppression wise. Boxcars are good, but when goaltending inevitably stabilizes closer to mean getting out chanced 2:1 high danger wise isn't going to cut it, especially with him getting more o-zone push.

St. Louis needs to ensure the guy can be a competent defender first and foremost. He's handling 18:42 TOI with currently no goals against. The offense is frankly gravy but smartly they are utilizing their young dman with weighted ozone starts. So he gets some fortuitous counting points with that. Handling middle pair minutes and responsibilities is the big picture.

His deployment versus advance stats in Stanley Cup Final game 1 reinforces the trust that an information based head coach had in the young player's ability to handle both the moment and a buzz saw team that heavily tilted the ice all season and playoffs.