He’s a player who has all the talent to re-ignite his career under the right situation. Even at 30.
Florida would be one of those teams. They could sell him on becoming their new Montour or OEL last year, and put him in those positions to succeed, while he ends up earning more responsibilities. Not unlike Montour and OEL did in FLA.
He’s the guy who’s gonna have to make that commitment though. If you can’t keep your compete level and attention to detail high, playing under JT, other teams aren’t gonna want to take a chance with him.
He hasn’t been over 30 points in 5-6 years. He does still have the ability to be a 40-50 point dman though. He can generate transition really well. We’ve seen it. That’s what’s frustrating about him. It doesn’t even have to be pure point production. He can open things up for forwards with how he can move the puck in transition. It’s his retrieval skills where you pull your hair out watching him.
If I’m a GM, I go back and watch him during the Flyers meaningful games last year. To be honest, I can’t remember if he stepped up or not. If he did, then other teams might look at him as someone they can tweak a little bit, and get a big reward. Even if it’s just moving the puck quickly and consistently.
The contract is an issue though. It’s gonna stop good teams from taking the chance on him. If they got a 2nd rounder, eating $1-1.5 million, they probably got a good deal.
If he doesn’t get that opportunity and take advantage of it somewhere, he’s gonna end up his entire career, being one of those dmen who plays a lot of minutes on really bad teams, because good teams won’t see him as a dman they’ll ever be able to trust playing important minutes.
Kind of what he’s been over his career.
Bottom line.. It would have to be the right situation, and I’m not sure many teams would even give a 3rd for him, with retention.
