Let's hope for a bounce back, because there's a solid player in there.
There isn't a solid player in there. At least not a solid defender. In a different role, maybe he could go back to being what he was in Winnipeg, or at least more like that.
But the last 4 seasons prove it. Horrific underlying numbers.
He's bad. He was always an offense-first defenseman with mediocre defensive numbers and those numbers have cratered when he was replaced by Fox in the offense-first role and instead asked to be a defensive defenseman. He's miscast in that role because stupid coaches think big body and big hits equals good defensive play, but he's actually awful at defending.
Lindgren was probably worse this year but at least the last 3 seasons from Lindgren were solid defensively. I don't want to sink a huge contract into Lindgren either but if it were theoretically possible to get Lindgren back for below market value on a moveable contract and the coaches had the spine to separate him from Fox, you could imagine him being a plus defender again, but in a third pair role, like has has been in recent years past.
We tried that this year with Trouba and the only positive result was simply because he was not on the ice as much.