This whole narrative that Provorov has been carried by a "top dman" is hilarious. Acting as though Niskanen and Ghost were top dmen is insane to me. 2 posts directly following mine are talking about Matt Niksanen... Like I said, all he needs is a capable partner and the guy will flourish. Carried around on a leash with Niskanen and Ghost, okay. Not sure there's even a sense in a conversation here.
I've followed both Sanheim and Provorov since jr. and their days in the W. Stating Sanheim is a far better player is complete nonsense. When we look at metrics do we consider usage or competition? Evidently not. Both are solid dmen in their own right, and make a solid 2/3 on majority of teams. I don't believe either is suited for a true #1 role, nor do I think there's a massive gap in terms of ability between the two players. For me, I take Provorov 100/100 over Sanheim any day of the week.
Nice that Sanheim has finally found some stability with a partner after years of a revolving door as we've seen on the Flyers top pairing since the departure of Niskanen. There's something to be said about having a capable partner on the back-end. If we look into what's actually been happening within the organizational structure for years now it's plain to see that it's been a glaring issue across all pairings, the d structure on this team has been mediocre at best. I believe with a healthy Ellis in the lineup it would allow Flyers dmen 1-6 to carve out definitive spots/pairings on a nighty basis.