Well if
@StevenToddIves is to be trusted both of these guys are disasters defensively and unlikely to become reliable NHL defensemen. And some would put Ty into the same category. But like I said Gamescore is very offensive heavy metric.
I wouldn't call Cormier a "disaster", per se, in terms of his defense. He's not a Poirier or Grans or Honka in that he has pretty solid sense and compete defensively, it's just not his bread and butter and he can be overmatched defensively in several ways, and his chance-taking offensively also leads to high-danger chances against.
Walsh is also a similar player-type. Like Cormier, he is routinely overmatched in board and crease battles, in addition to often being caught out of position when trying to do too much offensively.
I am fine with this type of defenseman if they have near-elite or elite offensive potential. I'm fine with an NHL defenseman giving up chances against if they're also producing big-time numbers for their own team. The problem with Cormier and Walsh is they lack the offensive upside of a true top-pairing NHL defender -- maybe they can hit 40 points and QB a 2PP at the NHL level, but is that really worth it considering the struggles in the defensive zone?
I'd rather have a Brett Pesce or John Marino scoring 25-30 points while consistently bottling up the opposing offense than a Will Butcher scoring 43 points while giving up a ton of opportunities against. That's just my philosophy in building a winning blueline. It's ok to have a chance-taking all-offense guy on the blueline,
but only if he's elite. If John Carlson is not the best defender around, I don't much care because the guy has put up 68 or more points in 3 of the last four years -- and also, Carlson doesn't exactly stink defensively, it's just not his bread and butter. But let's face the obvious that, unlike John Carlson, Cormier or Walsh (or Grans or Poirier) simply don't have the ability to put up 55 points at the NHL level, much less 75.
Yes, I would include Ty Smith in this category. I thought at one point he might have top-pairing type offensive upside and the ability to become a passable defender, but his tremendous regression last season puts doubts in my mind whether he will ever come close to his upside -- which incidentally, should be rated higher than Cormier or Walsh.
I would say the biggest reason for the Devils improvement this season, after all, is replacing Ty Smith with John Marino. Right now the Devils have one of the best blue lines in the conference, featuring two standout shut-down guys (Marino and Sigenthlaer) one elite offensive guy who is also solid defensively (Hamilton), and one very good defender who is also ok offensively (Graves). If there are areas which could be improved it's with Smith -- so-so defensively and nonexistent offensively but with a good deal of physicality -- and Severson -- good but not great offensively and ok but erratic defensively.
As a side not, with all of Severson's warts, I'd say right now he's just above the talent ceiling for either Cormier or Walsh. Essentially this is saying that, with Cormier or Walsh, you're ultimate hope is they one day become almost-but-not-quite as effective as Damon Severson is right now. I'd say their offensive abilities are on par with Severson, but Severson's ability to hold his own physically in tight battles against NHL forwards is something Cormier or Walsh will never be able to emulate.
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