He's only a liability if he loses (or decides not to display) that edge he can bring - and you're right in calling out the fact that it isn't always there.
He's a dman after all and with his size (and assuming defense is just as important as offense), he needs that edge to play well defensively.
In today's NHL, we measure this type of dman based on offense - but they are not off the hook when it comes to defending.
The gamble in his next contract is, will he be able to play with that edge as he gets older - and for how long.
All I'd add is that I'd be careful with this one - because IMO, these smaller offensive dmen lose a lot of value if they can't manage the defensive side of the game. When he is playing with that edge, he's good - but it's not unheard of to see these guys pull back on the edge under contract in their twilight years.
The guy the will likely get that type of contract is JoMo - he'll be over paid at some point. Do we want another smaller dman in that same situation?
BTW, there's no "hate" in this opinion - sometimes it's just opinion.
It's a fair opinion. I think there are a lot of areas that you can look at the Jets and say they are imperfectly built. Smaller defense, smaller wingers, no true elite centre. Lack of scoring from centres.
A lot of things had to go right to get the start the Jets had.
When you look at the future, I think people are excited about Salomonsson with good reason. But there's as much uncertainty that Salomonsson is going to be ready for 20 minutes a night shutdown defense next season as anything else on this team. Does Pionk's success depend on Dylan Samberg? For sure. Does Samberg need a puck mover to have success, I think that's also likely true? Jet would be a qualified commentator on how much good defense relies on chemistry, knowing how your d-partner likes to plays, and complementing it. Spacing is so important in defense, to be successful. Can't be separated from good forward work either, centers who play in the right areas of the ice, forward who backcheck to negate speed and odd man rushes. Can anyone say that Samberg and Salomonsson would be good in their spacing, as two players who don't really know each other's game? They had one preseason game, and it could have been rust but I did notice that they had trouble with clean breakouts.
I will watch how it plays out. There's so many potential changes looming on this team, my inclination is the Jets would like to have a relatively consistent top 4 to go into next season.
And Pionk has been more consistent as the article and our coach suggest.
I thought the article was good because it talks about how many d-men from the draft class he was passed over have played as many NHL games as him. Mental strength being mentioned by former coaches as one of Pionk's strengths is maybe an insight into the player, more than the analytics of playing a lot of d-zone starts.
