I like this signing for the regular season. This team is at its best when there are puck movers on the back end. Between Brannstrom, Rosen, MacD, Malinski, and Behrens you have to hope one of them gains Bednar's trust to play 12-15 minutes a night.
Ya if he can play the right side I'd imagine he's there to duke it out with Malinski - though I do hope they give Malinski a proper look this year.Trading Girard and putting Brännström next to Manson would make sense stylistically, but Brännström isn't as good as Girard and has also always played better on his off side.
Toews --- Makar
Girard ---- Manson
DeHaan/xxxx - Brännström
That's the setup I'd imagine they're aiming for here.
I think CDH can PK, but ya we could have used a RHD who can PK.IMO since the Avs are constrained in this manner, the best solution is to get two guys who can take on PK minutes and play as low event of hockey as possible for 12-14 minutes a night. This would limit the load on the top guys until the bottom pairing could be addressed down the road. Going for guys who cannot PK and play risky hockey is going to lead to those players' minutes being pulled down and the top guys are going to have to take on more PK and more 5v5 minutes.
There's only one thing they need to remember on the power play to make it work--they seem to forget for long stretches that it requires someone in front generating traffic, creating screens, deflecting shots, and plunking in rebounds and rely too much on 8 and 29 trying to create the perfect snipe. I'd also like for Bednar to put more emphasis on creating a viable 2nd unit, but I suppose the overall lack of depth did make it hard to do that. The power play was good...it just wasn't consistent for those reasons.The PP and PK need significant work.
Don't blame the coaches. It's a pile of shit because they don't have the right tools: no good defensive center who can win faceoffs, no good defensive D with size.the PK at its very fundamentals is just plain shit.
It's not defensive D with size that are the issue--in fact it's built so that bigger d-men CAN'T run it because they're always hovering by the f***ing goalposts, so any shot that gets blocked and lands in the corner requires so the guy closest to the loose puck has to scramble like hell to try and get it out. If they spread out more, not only would they challenge puckhandlers more effectively, they'd be closer to loose pucks AND better able to intercept/deflect passes.Don't blame the coaches. It's a pile of shit because they don't have the right tools: no good defensive center who can win faceoffs, no good defensive D with size.
Brannstrom sure as f*** won't steal Makar's ice time on the PK.
Meh, so what? If he sucks it's a waste of $900K. He gets waived, sent down, contract buried.Surprised so many of you lot like this move. I want to be wrong, but I think some of you lot are going to change your tune when he gets to game 20 and looks dreadful out there.
Any chance Brannstrom means Kylington in another language because damn if not?!
This bloke is an absolute coward when being forechequed against, turnover machine and hot potato with puck sort of player.
Why are people bringing up MacDonald? Did you see that AHL salary? They brought that dude in to play down there.
Thanks for your input. Send us Tkachuk and we’ll send you Rantanen +.Very smart signing for the Avs. Don’t get fooled by “he can’t make Ottawa so he must suck”. You’ll actually be shocked that a team is dumb enough to let him go and chose to play 2 of JBD, Hamonic and rookie Kleven full time instead.
Check his progression the last 2 years in terms of advanced stats. Sure he didn’t have the toughest role on the Sens but he had the best defensive metrics in Ottawa in the last 2 years overall. Unfortunately, they act like they’re preparing to play game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals when they haven’t made the playoffs for 7 years so no way they can have a smaller D-man. We just had probably the worst GM of all time (you guys had a glimpse with the Duchene fiasco) for seven years and now it seems that we have a size queen for GM.
He’s quick and smart and moves the puck swiftly out of danger. He posted positive xGF ratios despite being paired with a lot of crap partners (Josh Brown, declined Nick Holden, Travis Hamonic…)
Wow, was Branstrom like the top young prospect that was suppose to be like the next Erik Karlsson? I am pretty sure he was like the main piece of that trade unless I am mistaken. This is why it's not easy to trade a superstar in a player like Rants because you see that even former top prospects and first round picks can bust.Don't blame the coaches. It's a pile of shit because they don't have the right tools: no good defensive center who can win faceoffs, no good defensive D with size.
Brannstrom sure as f*** won't steal Makar's ice time on the PK.
Sounds like Elliott.Any chance Brannstrom means Kylington in another language because damn if not?!
This bloke is an absolute coward when being forechequed against, turnover machine and hot potato with puck sort of player.
It goes further... here's the full left shot D depth chart
Toews
Girard
CDH
Brannstrom
Achan
Behrens
MacDonald
Rosen
Weinstein
Middleton
Aamodt
G, Brannstrom, Achan, MacDonald, and Rosen all play that similar style. Behrens has a bit more snarl, but he's not far removed from it either.
Where's Caleb Jones? I'd put him right up there too.
Also, hasn't everyone been crying out for a solid breakout d-man? Here in Brannstrom we have the perfect player for that.
We have such amazing depth now. Perfect signing for us ! C-mac is a wizard !!
Vastly different IMO. Difference is in their skating and therefore dynamism. Gulyayev is more like OzolinchHow similar is Brannstrom to Gulyayev?
He’s quick and smart and moves the puck swiftly out of danger. He posted positive xGF ratios despite being paired with a lot of crap partners (Josh Brown, declined Nick Holden, Travis Hamonic…)
It’s $150,000 more than league minLeague min, what's not to love? Good stuff.
But we have 2 spots to fill so how does that work?I wish they would have used the brainstorm and CDH money on a better player