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Projected Better Pairing - Fox/Lindgren vs. McDonagh/Sauer?

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Better Pairing? (Project)

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    86
jas said:
Sauer was a legitimate 1st paring complementary defenseman. He wasn't asked to be Bobby Orr.
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After one season he was? Sorry I do not remember Sauer being THAT good. I remember being grieved that he was not with the Rangers for the 2014 SCF, but not that.
 
McD was a top 10 defenseman in the league at one point with us. That peak didn’t last long but he was very very good.

Its funny we’re using Sauer instead of Girardi here. McD mostly played with Girardi, and I’d compare Sauer to a young Girardi.
 
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aufheben said:
I don’t know man, maybe I’m wrong but it seems like the farther we’ve gotten from his career ending the better people remember him as.
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I was one of the biggest advocates for Sauer, for like two years before he finally made it. And even when he caught on, I maintained he had some latent offensive talent, that he'd get more comfortable joining the rush and you see a few more points out of him. No one was higher on him than I was, but he was a second pairing defenseman. That's what he was going to be.

I feel exactly the same way about Lindgren. I talked him up all year his rookie season and said it was a joke he didn't make it out of camp. They have similarities to their games, and I think they have similar upsides. Lindgren will be a good second pair guy, which is what I believe Sauer would have been.

I know the advanced stats might not support this, but I'm pretty confident in what I saw--and what I see now.
 
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Edge said:
Such a shame.

Two of those guys had career altreing injuries in their mid-20s.

The the third has really battled some injuries and a lot of milage over the years.

Girardi's career, regardless of his contract, had a pretty typical arch.
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sadly a perfect reminder why you can never have too many defensive prospects....our blueline was SET for the next 10+ years and then in a blink of an eye it felt everything changed.
 
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Leetch3 said:
sadly a perfect reminder why you can never have too many defensive prospects....our blueline was SET for the next 10+ years and then in a blink of an eye it felt everything changed.
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Rosters and personal finances can change faster than any of us truly want to believe.

One incident changes a great plan, and multiple incidents change an entire landscape.
 
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jas said:
McDonagh, Del Zotto, Staal, Sauer, Girardi and Bobby Sanguinetti...never to be.
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Yup.

Sanguinetti busted, Sauer had a career-ending injury, and Del Zotto ended up regressing after it seemed like he would be an all-star for a long time.

McD obviously panned out more than expected. Staal was good for a while before the injuries kicked in. Girardi as well with Staal for the most part.

Half did well, the other half did not lol
 
Sauer was really powerful but he had all the concussions. Only played about parts of 2 seasons. Staal was rock solid and had that poke move and long reach that really disarmed guys like Crosby and Ovechkin but lost his effectiveness when he lost his vision. And Girardi was a f***ing stud stay at home defender when he was young. He blocked so many shots, he was fearless. He always moved his feet and was very mobile in his own end and would blanket people. The first few years McD was a monster. As soon as they put the C on him he started to decline for us, also dragging the corpse of a banged up Girardi didnt help him. But for a period in the late 2000s we had some stud defensemen.

I think Lindgren is Girardiesque with a little bit more sandpaper, basically an undersized Sauer. But Fox is not the same kind of player as McD. McD was a complete defensemen with plus mobility and speed. Fox lacks speed but he has the moves and the brain and offensive acumen McD could only dream of. Completely different players. As a defenseman McD runs him over, but as an offensive Dman its not close. Fox is also a more calm player.
 
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Crease said:
Its funny we’re using Sauer instead of Girardi here. McD mostly played with Girardi, and I’d compare Sauer to a young Girardi.
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It's an apt comparison. McDonagh just never seemed to have the same chemistry with Girardi as he did with Sauer (although his pairing with Sauer was obviously of much shorter duration).

We missed Sauer a lot for a while, but I think Kevin Klein was able to be that same steady, defensive presence once he arrived via trade.
 
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Fox is light years ahead of McDonagh offensively, but obviously not as good defensively. I think Lindgren will be better than Girardi over the long-haul. Hard for me to compare to Sauer. I liked him, but he didn't last long. Hard to judge what he would have been without the injuries. Could have been another Girardi or Staal long-term or could have exceeded them defensively. I do think they win the Cup in 2012 if he stayed healthy.
 
Unless fox AND lind blow away their ceiling projections or one of the two becomes prime EK for about 6 years then it's mcd/sauer by a landslide.

We saw what mcd became. Sauer was almost a top pair D when his injury came on. Losing sauer straight up lost us a cup. Maybe 2.

(Same with cherepanov and the jessiman pick, as an aside)

I'm going off of projection and ignoring injuries.
 
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