Value of: Dante Fabbro
- Thread starter Stuzchuk
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Unholy
kesbae
Not many good RHD targets out there without trade protection. Would love if he got to July 1 somehow
biturbo19
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- Jul 13, 2010
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I'd be shocked if Columbus didn't figure out a way to keep him. He's got a pretty vested interest in staying there as well, as it's been a great fit for him. I don't know that anyone else is going to be lining up to hand him a megadeal or anything, so the best money he's likely to get is probably in Columbus too. Where they know that he fits. I think that all probably suppresses his price somewhat...but his play with Columbus also merits a pretty decent deal. Really hard to project what that actually looks like though...
Porter Stoutheart
Feliz Cinco De Lotto
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Yeah, I don't think he's the kind of guy you get into a bidding war over. 5x$5M is fair, and I wouldn't pay more than that for him. He's in a good place atm with Columbus, I think he would recognize that and not be holding out for a bigger payday, but who knows. Columbus does have the advantage of already having pretty good depth on D and more youth coming at the same position so also won't have any motivation to get into a bidding war.
Other teams really shouldn't be bidding higher on a complementary style player like him anyway, but it might be slightly crazier Free Agent Frenzy this year than in other recent years due to the rising Cap and the relative lack of supply of decent players on the UFA market. You couldn't exactly blame Fabbro for trying to strike it rich in this environment, if he did want to try that... but he's in such a good spot right now after what he went through in Nashville that it would be a shame if he rolled that dice in free agency and it didn't work out as well for him as it has in Columbus so far.
Bjornar Moxnes
Stem Rødt og Felix Unger Sörum
I feel if Fabbro doesn't re-sign, he's going to either the highest bidder or a playoff team. I can see Fabbro signing with CBJ for around $4.5-5mill, less than $4.5mill for a clear contender, and probably at least $5.5-6 for non-playoff teams.
quietbruinfan
Salt and light
Porter Stoutheart
Feliz Cinco De Lotto
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A big component of how Fabbro plays out for a team is the coaching philosophy too. He's a smaller (6'/190 is small by NHL D standards) non-physical defender who gets by on smooth skating, good positioning, overall good IQ, and generally smart/safe transition plays.
There are no "wow" factor traits whatsoever in his skillset. Which is what left him stranded by the wayside with the dumber Nashville coaching philosophies. So if your coach wants a bruiser who is going to throw hits or knock guys around in front of the net, or a guy who is going to rack up points by taking a lot of high risk chances, or really stand out in any way... then Fabbro can seem a little under-whelming. Because his strengths are much more subtle, and not all NHL coaches seem to get that.
For example, Nashville seems to absolutely love Jeremy Lauzon, who is utter garbage as an NHL defenseman. Except, he runs around trying to hit everything in sight. So the last couple of Preds coaches (and the new GM too) just love Lauzon. Even while he is a complete liability overall on the ice. But he hits! And probably says a lot of rah-rah things on the bench and in the room. Fabbro is the polar opposite, but is instead actually a very effective player. So YMMV with how Fabbro pans out for any given team, all depending on how his coach views things.
There are no "wow" factor traits whatsoever in his skillset. Which is what left him stranded by the wayside with the dumber Nashville coaching philosophies. So if your coach wants a bruiser who is going to throw hits or knock guys around in front of the net, or a guy who is going to rack up points by taking a lot of high risk chances, or really stand out in any way... then Fabbro can seem a little under-whelming. Because his strengths are much more subtle, and not all NHL coaches seem to get that.
For example, Nashville seems to absolutely love Jeremy Lauzon, who is utter garbage as an NHL defenseman. Except, he runs around trying to hit everything in sight. So the last couple of Preds coaches (and the new GM too) just love Lauzon. Even while he is a complete liability overall on the ice. But he hits! And probably says a lot of rah-rah things on the bench and in the room. Fabbro is the polar opposite, but is instead actually a very effective player. So YMMV with how Fabbro pans out for any given team, all depending on how his coach views things.
I just wonder if Waddell is big game hunting and doesn't want to lock himself into last years group again while he has time. Id be surprised to not see him resigned but maybe those trade deadline talks has the potential for a bigger move on his mind
Armourboy
Hey! We suck!
Agree, Fabbro isn't a guy you over pay for, but he is a good to have if you need a guy to fill minutes and will more or less play around whatever his partner is doing. Frankly its one reason I think he never looked that great playing with Ekholm, they are both that style of player.
He's never going to carry a pairing, but if you have a good Dman that just needs a solid partner, he's your guy.
the Blue Jackets are +/-31M away from the cap floor... they'd be crazy not to re-sign him. As per advanced stats he was clearly their best dman after Werenski (sorry, I can't say how true advanced stats are with him, I havent watch much Jackets hockey this year)
Porter Stoutheart
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Exactly. Josi is a guy who very much needs somebody to "mind shop" for him. Ekholm very much does not need this. I don't really know Werenski's style enough to comment, but it seems to have worked out very nicely for both of them?
Another weird thing about Fabbro's time in Nashville was that Josi didn't seem to WANT to play with him. And Josi's word is Gold in Nashville. He's the God-Captain and gets what he wants. But Josi also doesn't seem to be very bright? He's a really talented hockey player. But. Josi wants to play with some other "exciting" defense partner.... he always wanted to play with Ryan Ellis, for example, even though that was a completely dysfunctional pairing of 2 guys who were always jumping up, and he seems to want to keep doing that. Except he actually had his best year ever when Fabbro just quietly minded shop for him while he went roving. So that's another reason why Fabbro was pushed to the sidelines in Nashville, despite being a much better player than some people might realize just by looking at stats/utilization.
He was clearly our 2nd best D, but that also doesn't say much.
Jovavic
Gaslight Object Project
ManofSteel55
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LTIR
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The player probably wants 5yrs at 6M per, the GMs would rather spread the 30M over 6yrs.
Dadof5boys
Registered User
He was on waivers because Trotz is a moron.
Yeah I don't know why this keeps getting brought up. A good player is a good player regardless of how he is acquired. Forsling seems to be OK for a waiver claim aswell as Verhaeghe being someone who once passed thru waivers.
Guys like Marty St.Louis, Ray Whitney, Steve Sullivan and Daniel Briere seemed to have had ok careers for guys who went on waivers.
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SteelCityCannon
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- Mar 25, 2017
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Genuine question, were any of those guys given long term deals that same offseason? I kinda doubt it.
My point with saying he was on waivers is that theoretically the league passed on him. I know Nashville fans want to rightfully dog Trotz, but do we really think he didnt offer him up anywhere and just cut him?
Forsling in Florida got claimed on waivers and signed a 3yrs 2.67M with the Panthers at year end.
some of them earned multi year contracts but it's kind of irrelevant because not all found their game that same season. Also, most or maybe all of them didn't show signs of what their level of play could be like Fabbro did when he had this type of season before with Josi.
He's not owed a mega deal but certainly earned some term. I think his best skill is his ability to play with skill and I think that's pretty valuable. You don't pay him like a top pair D but he can play there in situations like last year when your team can pair him with a Werenski/Josi. Waddell even made mention of this when he claimed him and the coaches put im immediately next to Werenski when he started playing here.
Shouldn't evaluate a player based on "if teams wanted him", especially when lots of teams were probably trying to send cap back while we had all the space in the world to just take the contract. That and GMs make bad decisions all the time. If he went and did this on another team Columbus fans would be in here saying they hope Waddell signs him if he hits FA
Given dearth of second line capable RHD's (let alone ones still 26/27 years-old entering their primes) - and the new financial/cap environment of this up-coming summer - I just don't see going 5 years with a guy like Fabbro is inherently that risky at all. I find it actually rather safe compared to giving a 29 year-old a full-boat 7 year deal or a 34 year-old a 3-4 year deal. I feel much better about Fabbro just maturing and getting better with more experience moving forward than I do about some of these other UFA's maintaining their current ability as they age. It's not often you can get an impact free agent starting at their age 27 year. There is value plus in that compared to the average UFA deal.
We can say "gee, I'd like a bit more track record before committing a sizeable offer to Fabbro" but the truth is if that's how Columbus is thinking, there are almost assuredly dozens of teams waiting in line to pay him handsomely and with significant term.
We can say "gee, I'd like a bit more track record before committing a sizeable offer to Fabbro" but the truth is if that's how Columbus is thinking, there are almost assuredly dozens of teams waiting in line to pay him handsomely and with significant term.
Not necessarily, I don't recall but I would imagine we weren't exactly at the bottom of the waiver list, we probably had first dibs.
Edit: we were bottom 5 in the league at the time.
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