You need to stop relying on stat /analytics watching. Barron is not out of the woods - he is still very inconsistent .
Matheson is a stabilizing influence on the Habs. He’s not a top pairing D nor is he paid as one. He’s a #3 that has to play against the other team’s best players. He is one of the few Habs that can skate the puck out of the D zone when under pressure.
Guhle has been extremely good in his return. Book is still out on Guhle.
Guhle may be your best player on the entire club. Or he's going to become that. He's promising. I'd agree that book on him is...
PLAYER. Great pick by your former GM. I'd easily rate his value as much higher than Slafkovsky.
BTW... you and I have argued about Byram before... His advanced stats are quite a bit better than Makar's so far this season. He's off to a fantastic start to this season as a really well rounded 200 foot player. He's got the best analytics of any Avs defender by a healthy margin. Girard is actually 2nd in that regard. He too is playing great hockey to start the year. Oddly enough, D Toews is the one off to the blah start to this year for the Avs. He's been playing like a middle pair guy.
You need to stop relying on the eye test so much. You probably don't focus on Matheson in terms of how he manages the rush, his gap control away from the puck, his net front defense and so on. It's not in our brains to watch that when the puck is what we follow.
Matheson has very good analytics with the puck, which confirm your POV on him in that regard. I've said as much myself. Those same analytics freaking suck for Matheson with his away from the puck and/or when the other team has it. He's not nearly as good a player as the Habs board indicates. He's also inconsistent and being played in a role he's not defensively able to handle. Hardly the stuff GMs want to acquire at the TDL. Most playoff teams already have one or two excellent puck movers out of the back. They tend to want and overpay for size and defensive grit heading into the post season. They don't go wild for the Tyson Berrie types, which is what your boy here falls into moreso than the Chiarot bucket.
Because you and most Habs fans very much want to eventually dump Matheson and certainly Josh Anderson for younger players or picks... you overrate these two. But NHL GMs will not.
Funny enough. Gallagher is off to pretty good analytical start to his season. I don't watch him at all, but his underlying stats are pretty good. Good for him. He was a good player a few years ago.
