We're all talking about Holden, right? If we're ranking the scum defense, it goes something like this for me (worst to best).
General Guenin - 9 times out of 10 he just stands there waiting for other people to take his assignment. And when he just stands there he doesn't even do a good job defending the net. He's not very physical, not a great shot blocker and has pucks for brains.
Holden - He moves his feet, but he's overall just a warm body on the ice. He doesn't have one redeeming quality that makes him standout, at least last year he scored backdoor PP goals. His passing, shooting, skating, physicality, etc... they're all mediocre at best.
Redmond - He can skate and he sometimes has an outstanding breakout pass. But defensively he leaves his assignments too often, overestimates his ability to skate the puck out and frequently is out of position or behind the play. He doesn't use his stick effectively to block shooting lanes or defend against other skaters correctly.
Stuart - He's no more than a 5/6 defender, which says a lot since I'm ranking him so high. On some nights Redmond is better, but overall Stuart seems to play within his means and is pretty damn effective defending the net and on the PK. The problem is he handles the puck like a live grenade and causes a lot of turnovers with poor passes, either to covered teammates or just passing it inaccurately or too slowly even (how the hell do you pass it too slowly?). He's been better than I expected, mostly due to the rest of the defenders being far worse than I had hoped.
Hejda - Self explanatory, the guy works hard but has had a lot of mental lapses when playing without EJ.
Barrie - What a breakout year, I even think he's starting to get the hang of things defensively. He won't ever be a physical force back there, but he seems to be learning the Dan Boyle school of defending with smooth skating and stickwork. Doesn't hurt that his offensive skills keep the puck out of his zone fairly well.
EJ - Do I even need to discuss this one?
So much hype behind that kid, ended up sucking big time
