He has made huge strides and is good enough at this point to be a 6/7d, which he frankly wasn't last year. And with POJ such an adventure and Kessel having regressed, that may actually justify keeping him in the lineup this year. I think that is where much of the enthusiasm lies. I don't think many of us want to see him stay in the top 4 or view him as part of the answer going forward.
the version of Perunovich for the last 10 games, I certainly do not mind him in the top 4, at all
he has averaged about 17.5 minutes and 21 shifts over that time and has been very good at moving the puck out of the d-zone, he has, by a lot, the lowest d-zone giveaways per minutes played among all the D
his on ice expected goals vs off ice expected goals is best among D, and only Parayko has a higher number blocks per minute played
his reads on holding the blue line or not have been very good, he has been jumping up in the play like you would expect out of an offensive d-man
he looks like a young player that realized he can play at this level, and now has the confidence to just play rather than overthinking everything
and, to my eyes anyway, Faulk looks better with him as a partner than anyone he has played with here except maybe Krug that one year
of course it is only 10 games, so we shall see
