Is Rasmus Dahlin an idiot?

93LEAFS

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Nov 7, 2009
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He's an all-star level player but people really threw around the word generational around way too much around his draft. A generational player should be competing for Hart trophies early on in their careers like Crosby, McDavid and Ovechkin. He's entering year 7 of his career and Noah Dobson has finished just as high in Norris voting (8th) as Dahlin ever has, Bouchard has a 5th place finish, and Quinn Hughes has a Norris.

People forget how up and down development for young defenceman at the NHL level is.
 
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CowbellConray

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Sep 8, 2010
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He's an all-star level player but people really threw around the word generational around way too much around his draft. A generational player should be competing for Hart trophies early on in their careers like Crosby, McDavid and Ovechkin. He's entering year 7 of his career and Noah Dobson has finished just as high in Norris voting (8th) as Dahlin ever has, Bouchard has a 5th place finish, and Quinn Hughes has a Norris.

People forget how up and down development for young defenceman at the NHL level is.
To be fair, Dahlin had everything you could want in a prospect on the defense. Size, speed, offense, defense, physicality, chippy play, transition play. I dont know that you can find a defensive PROSPECT with his proven skill going into a draft of the past 20 years. That's where generational comes into play. No prospect on defense looked as good as he did, or has since. Dahlin hasn't lived up to generational, but his prospect status wasn't an asinine thing in its time.
 

biturbo19

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Jul 13, 2010
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I don't think he's an idiot, but he does play a sometimes overly aggressive style of game and is prone to the odd boneheaded mistake or misjudging of a situation. He's just got the tools to play a riskier style, and the confidence that he can make up for some "ooopsies". Makes him a very fun player to watch imo, but it does come with some head scratching decisions occasionally.

He's still a darn good defenceman though. Right in the conversation at the fringes of the Norris conversation in a good year. His dynamic side is that bigtime on the "plus" side that i think he's capable of sticking around in that tier just short of the absolute elite guys, even while making bigger mistakes than most of the rest of them typically do.
 

93LEAFS

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Nov 7, 2009
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To be fair, Dahlin had everything you could want in a prospect on the defense. Size, speed, offense, defense, physicality, chippy play, transition play. I dont know that you can find a defensive PROSPECT with his proven skill going into a draft of the past 20 years. That's where generational comes into play. No prospect on defense looked as good as he did, or has since. Dahlin hasn't lived up to generational, but his prospect status wasn't an asinine thing in its time.
I didn't think he was generational at the time. Generational would generally mean he's competition for Harts within his ELC if he lands. Which wasn't going to be the case, even expecting him to be getting Norris's on his ELC was likely an unrealistic prediction. He wasn't a clearly better prospect than Matthews, Eichel, and MacKinnon. When throwing around generational, it should mean likely to be that they will be in the discussion for best player in the league, regardless of position, which didn't seem like a realistic projection.
 

Pierre Larouche

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Jan 4, 2009
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Chill. I too can't believe how lucky we are to have Hughes but we don't need to be smug and insert it unnecessarily into unrelated threads.

Dahlin' been completely unsupported by veterans or useful systems, so it's possible he's adopted some terrible habits.

But he's still a superlatively skilled player. Either in Buffalo, or if they stupidly trade him elsewhere, he will be a key part of some long playoff runs eventually.
I agree with you- what a nasty thread to even start.
 

BFLO

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I didn't think he was generational at the time. Generational would generally mean he's competition for Harts within his ELC if he lands. Which wasn't going to be the case, even expecting him to be getting Norris's on his ELC was likely an unrealistic prediction. He wasn't a clearly better prospect than Matthews, Eichel, and MacKinnon. When throwing around generational, it should mean likely to be that they will be in the discussion for best player in the league, regardless of position, which didn't seem like a realistic projection.
So you don't consider Lidstrom to be generational? Seems pretty unfair to say defensemen need to win a hart or Norris on their ELC to be considered generational when the GOAT defensemen didn't win his first Norris until he was 30.



(I'm not saying Dahlin is Lidstrom)
 

93LEAFS

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So you don't consider Lidstrom to be generational? Seems pretty unfair to say defensemen need to win a hart or Norris on their ELC to be considered generational when the GOAT defensemen didn't win his first Norris until he was 30.



(I'm not saying Dahlin is Lidstrom)
Did you forget the name Bobby Orr? Calling Lidstrom the GOAT defender is ridiculous. Great player, but uh, Bobby Orr had 3 Norris's and a Hart by 21.

And, no I don't consider a player who never got a Hart nomination nor won a Pearson/Ted Lindsey generational.
 
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Aladyyn

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Dahlin was considered a generational DEFENSEMAN prospect. The best D prospect since Potvin back in the 70s. Not really the same thing as guys like Crosby or McDavid.
 
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