henchman21
Mr. Meeseeks
- Feb 24, 2012
- 65,953
- 51,558
Yup... you have 4 guys who are all pretty much the same defensemen (Rosen, MacDonald, Brannstrom, and Malinski). Given CDH is likely the JMFJ replacement and a PK role player. He's nailed in on the left side bottom pairing. So that pushes all those guys to the right with Brannstrom likely being the first option out of camp as he has the largest waivers risk even if he's not the best.I don't think there's any "upset" about Brannstrom in of himself. It's about the fact that he's joined on the #5, #6, #7, and #8 option list by CDH, Malinski, MacDonald, and Rosen...
The role is the primary issue. Brannstrom can't PK, he's a risky puck mover who will turn the puck over and commit penalties (two things Bednar just loves on his bottom pairing), he's not sound defensively, and needs a cycle buster to be effective. He's a worse Girard who needs a Manson/Tanev type next to him to have a lot of success.
What we really need is a #5-8 that is more like Manson and less like Girard.
And ideally a right shot, though one doesn't really exist out in UFA. Maybe Bortuzzo, but he really sucks.