Agree on Marcus Pettersson, he’s top 4 on a really bad Pittsburgh team. Is he much better than Carson Soucy of last season?
...yes.
Soucy is a really nice player on the 3rd pair but his greatest limitation is the ability to think the game at speed.
He gets himself caught in the moment and gets out of position in the Ozone. He does not have the confidence or ability to QB a play out of the dzone.
His upside is that he's a great transition defender with speed and length. In zone D he can be a bit light on the puck or behind on a read but generally is pretty solid.
Some of his downsides... He is often a timid player with the puck - he defers even to Myers. He relies on others to transition the puck - he can join the rush but not start it. He is poor on his backhand. While he skates with good speed to make up for it, he does not pivot right well.
The big change in Soucy's performance is that the Canucks are asking their forwards to spring on the breakout more rather than come back to support the chip out.
Myers and Soucy were helped a ton last year by the system. There are growing pains now and perhaps a disconnect for Tochett/management in accepting that you can't have your cake and eat it too asking hulking Dzone players to transition quickly without mistakes.
We are trying to bring a more modern transition element to the team without the more modern blueline. We can either go back to the old system or bring in new players to execute.
It seems we are sticking with the new system and hoping to get through until help arrives in Willander/Pettersson or in trade. That's probably the right choice but Soucy/Myers are being asked to do too much as a 2nd pair.