MarkusNaslund19
Registered User
- Dec 28, 2005
- 5,694
- 8,414
You presented yourself as an authority on the player when we acquired him and compared him to Tyler Myers.
I think you either have a blind hatred for the player, or else struggle to evaluate his player archetype.
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I find the hair pulling and teeth gnashing a bit much.
Like, the first half of the year he wasn't playing like a 7.25 million dollar player, he was playing like an 11 million dollar player, and we know he isn't that.
The 2nd half, he was clearly injured and a shell of himself and yet he was still a competent top pairing D who didn't really hurt us. He just wasn't contributing remotely as much as he was in the first 50 games.
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He has a couple of serious flaws, but they are fixable.
1. He is atrocious on 2-on-1s. He and Myers both have to be like bottom 15 percentile at knowing when to force the puck carrier to make a move, and getting the stick and body in the way of passes. He absolutely has to improve at this.
2. He gets a bit complacent around his own self-preservation. Like he passes a puck sometimes and then let's his guard down and gets smashed by a hit that's an 8th of a second late as if he thinks forecheckers will always follow the letter of the law. Has to improve at self preservation or more injuries will occur.
Otherwise? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills reading half the responses on here.
1. He comes from a complete tirefire of a team. He has had zero guidance. Hell, he literally lead that team in scoring as like a 22 year old, mostly unheralded, defence man. So playing with structure, playing under Foote and Gonchar, playing with a good team that can utilize him more optimally. All of these things are going to lead him to improve.
The recency bias on these boards is hilarious. We dealt a 1st and a 2nd for him, and a 3rd for Zadorov within the last 15 months.
But an injury for him and a good 13 games for Zadorov and suddenly people think he sucks and Zadorov is Chara. It's a bit mindboggling.
2. The salary cap is going up. So even if he doesn't improve, his contract will. In 3 years number 2 D will probably be signing for like 8.5 million per.
So to me there's almost no risk of this not being a good contract that becomes a great contract unless he gets like concussion issues or something.
He will continue to improve, he's already more than worth the money, and the cap hit will become less and less significant.
He makes a lot less than Karlsson, less than Werenski, less than Jones, less than Nurse, less than Burns, less than Carlson, less than Chabot, less than Trouba, less than Weber (lol), less than Orlov, less than Spurgeon, and a quarter of a million dollars more than M.E. Vlasic (lol). And he signed his contract after all of them did.
Like I seriously see zero risk here. We have our top 2 centers and top 2 D tied up for the next three years (next 6 if you don't include Hughes) for like 34 million. That's an unreal foundation that will only get better and better.
Let yourself be happy about something Canucks fans, it's good for you.
