And what makes you think Arber Xhekaj can't do that His age?
He hasn't finished progressing yet as our top six get better our D will put up more points it's a natural progression.
The man had 16 points in 18 post season games with Hamilton he has talent.
I'm not even saying Hutson won't be a top 4 D man I'm saying he isn't one yet IMO...
And conversely I don't see any winning hockey teams with a Matheson and Hutson as one two punch on the left side.
Maybe I'm wrong and it's the greatest thing since sliced bread but I doubt it.
Right now Reinbacher is a better option in our top 4 than Hutson is.
I agree with you with Xhekaj. He finished on positive ratio (mainly on third pairing). Get his part of point. To me, If he becomes a second pair dman, it because he can play more minutes and still keeping a positive ratio. On a second pair, he will mainly facing, 1st and 2nd line. This is not an easy task to produce, having a positive ratio and eating a lot of minutes against top line. Or he become a Sheldon Souray and he produces a lot of points with his shot. I don’t say he cannot do it, but he is not there right now.
For Struble, he finished with a negative ratio. I mean, if Xhekaj need one step to make the second pair and be effective, Struble may need 2 step. This is not impossible. But, he couldnt be able to handle it too.
Matheson get a lot of point, but his defensive game was not terrible…. On a contender he is a 3rd dman. He had too much time on ice vs opponent first line/2nd line, because look his ratio...
Hutson to me
Is a lock top 4. He is gonna outproduce his defensive weakness.