lol dude my memory has been wrong on a lot of things like this, as I'm sure is true of everyone on this forum (except
@Boom Boom Apathy and
@Gocanes0506 )
That said, the stats back up my memory here, that he absolutely excelled, even borderline dominated:
In about 6.5 games on the top pair (Slavin got hurt in the middle of the Minnesota game on 1/19/23 then missed the next 6 games) Chatty had 1 goal, 5 assists and was +9 with no games where he was in the minus while averaging about 20 minutes per game. Oh, and the team was 7-0 in those games. I don't remember really any defensive hiccups or anything like that, just remember the team and D not missing a beat at all without Slavin and it being largely because of how well Chatty played in that stretch.
I don't read
too much into that so not proclaiming he'd be a great top pair guy if given that opportunity but I do think that combined with how well he's played this year makes me pretty confident that he'll do at least ok moving up to the 2nd pair next year. Plus I just find it hard to find any real faults to his game. His speed is top tier, he's pretty physical, can provide some offense when needed and is generally pretty smart out there (and when he does make a bad decision, oftentimes his speed can make up for it).