nuck
Registered User
- Aug 18, 2005
- 11,753
- 2,765
Looking at what playing top 4 for the Devils just did to Hamilton's numbers I have no idea how PK would look as a Leaf but I suspect its a bit better than people think. He was still a good defenseman when the Preds traded him , just not $9M good and only got "exposed" when he went to a shit lineup. I think he was pretty banged up when the trade to NJ came and maybe not able to play with quite the same physical edge. He came from being in a really solid top 4 on a strong team to carrying the top pairing on a weak team so much tougher to thrive. The surest way to make any D man ineffective is to put him in a spot where he has to carry more than he is able to.I would argue the quality of their teams skew these results more than a bit, but I'm not here arguing Subban is the better player right now by any means. I do like the physicality he'd bring, among a few other qualities. I'd be interested in adding him cheap like you said.
The Leafs can only make one D add if they replace Holl, and they have to do that knowing Lilly might not be ready for top 4. If they have 25 year old Liljegren with 200 games under his belt then a PK add looks interesting in the 3rd pair but the Holl replacement now needs to be a clear upgrade from JH and not a roll of the dice to see how much game is left there. And to play as rough a game as PK did in his prime, every night. That sort of player is one they would have to trade for.