How so? We swapped Greene and Vatanen for Murray and Kulikov.
That would be okay, except those two guys have averaged 50 games a year over the last 4 seasons.
The hope is Ty Smith provides the big upgrade, but I need to see that first. He was so bad last year that he managed to play his way out of being an absolute lock to make the team.
Everyone who thought Smith was a lock last off season because he looked great in his first training camp should look at how many mid 1st round defensemen play in the NHL D+2. Dahlin, Hughes and Boqvist were the only defensemen from the defense heavy 2018 draft to make the NHL. Boqvist was able to start in the AHL, Sandin got some playing time but he’s been allowed to be on the Marlies for two seasons and Lou said outright he kept Dobson up because he needed him for defensive depth. (And Dobson averaged 13 minutes in 34 games.). You’re right, people can’t go in looking for Smith to be a savior, but I think everyone here believes his overall development is the important thing anyway.
I totally agree that losing two key defensemen is a big deal and losing Greene will hurt our PK while losing Vatanen will hurt our PP. Vatanen only played 47 games last season, he didn’t suit up in Carolina, while Kulikov played 51 and Murray played 27 so Murray lost the Mr Glass competition last season but Sami didn’t exactly win it. In 2018-19, Sami played 50, Murray played 56 and Kulikov played 57. (I’m guessing this is why no one is giving Sami any good offers btw.)
Overall GAR isn’t kind to defensive defenseman because but Evolving Wild separates GAR by even strength defense and offense and special teams. If you look at Kulikov they’re all negative, even penalty killing (the Jets PK is 22nd tho) and he’s an NHL even strength offensive black hole, but his even strength defense is a +2.8. That’s the best on the team, better than say, DeMelo (+1.4), who does do mildly better in other categories to make up for it. (The Jets overall team defense is brutal, they go all offense with very young forwards and let their stud goalie bail them out.)
I point this out because while Even Strength Defense GAR isn’t an exact science it does help judge defensive defenseman. Kulikov was +2.8 and Jets fans were saying he was solid defensively in lesser shut down role and that checks out. Jack Johnson’s even strength defense GAR was -3.5, the only other big negative on the team being Schultz with -1.7, and Pens fans wanted to throw him into a volcano which also checks out.
Until we know how much of a season we will actually have I’m not too bent out of shape over these rentals. The dream is to trade for a more long term solution on defense but other than Schmidt we didn’t even miss out on any other actual trades since we didn’t have the assets for Toews or Zadorov.
edit: This defense is going to be a mess but that’s hard to avoid with so much turnover too. It’s going to be a new system with new players.
