Those mental players have worked quite well for us, even if they self-destructive in the end. Kadri, Nuke. Kadri destroyed himself first but redeemed himself later. Nuke proved everyone wrong and then destroyed himself.
If Brannstrom was going to be the 6th D and gets pushed out of the lineup by Kylington the biggest losers will be us suckers who watch this team for 82 games and think the Avs have a shot in the playoffs.
So true not sure what the plan is you tend to need at least two bigger physical D if nothing for PK. Right now we have Manson and that’s about it…
Overpaid by .05
De Haan can PK.
Yeah, but Bednar is going to want some potato on the bottom pairing to kill penalties
The RD's that PK and have size cost more though, even if they suck, and we don't have any room.
You gotta have some guys who are meat and potatoes. Manson is the meat and De Haan is the potato.
My eyes saw it differently. He looked lost and made a lot of mistakes. He gave up dangerous chances at a high rates and generally didn't look that good. Even moving the puck, which is his calling card, he didn't look nearly like he did a couple years prior. Potentially not being paired with Tanev has something to do with this... but I give the benefit of the doubt and say rust.
After seeing the premium placed on big RHD these last few years makes me really happy that they had the foresight to acquire and lock up Manson.
It's really soft. Big dmen that can play are in high demand.
The whole league is basically going after the model of let your top pairing be whatever type of offensive tilted D you can get your hands on... and let them attack full tilt. Then your bottom 4 have to be guys who can hold it down, play good defense, and hit. Which has left a glut of these types of defensemen. Traditionally though, when a type of player is undervalued in the league, it is usually for a reason.
I'm still pissed that we didn't trade for Kovacevic. He's not a great dman but he makes only 765k AAV and is exactly the bottom pairing RD that the team needed. He's 6'5 and has some puck moving and PK abilities.
Isn’t DeHaan bit physical? Or not necessarily physical like throwing big hits and stuff but can handle physicality. He pretty much replaces JJ on bottom pair and we have the same D core but deeper with Brannstrom and Kylington. There will probably be more moves at the trade deadline, perhaps a right handed physical D.The whole defense is soft. Yeah Makar can throw some hits from time to time, but he's not a physical guy. Nor is Toews. Manson is the only guy there routinely throws the body.
What's kinda funny/interesting... G would have the 3rd highest hits/60 of that whole group last season. Manson > CDH > G > Kylington > Toews > Brannstrom > Makar
Given his verrrrrrrrry lengthy injury history the answer is "Uh, no, he cannot handle physicality."
