Ceci is also more or less fine - as a bottom pair D man.
The issue at the end of the day is that Nurse needs an A grade babysitter to cover his warts. Theoretically he should be able to hold down a pair with an inexperienced partner like Broberg creating a more than capable Kulak - Ceci third pair, but he just can't.
To add to this conundrum further - Nurse seems to need a very specific type of D partner with him for him to not completely suck. It's possible we acquire someone at the deadline should work on paper, but doesn't which creates another round of musical chairs on the second pair.
The best solution? Darnell gets his shit together, takes ownership of how far his game has fallen, and takes it upon himself personally to not be the problem again next year. Unfortunately he either doesn't seem to have the capability to do this, or even recognize how bad he is to start with.
100% agree with all of this- working around Darnell's play and contract has become a headache.
Ceci is actually a really big part of our PK. We already lost Vinny, if we dump Ceci we absolutely need someone who can be a regular on the PK. That means our candidate needs to be: (i) a solid all around defenceman capable of playing top 4 minutes; (ii) an effective puck mover, able to cover for Nurse's deficiencies; (iii) capable of playing on our top PK unit.
That's a hell of a player I'm describing. Looking around at players who come close to that description and might be available, the best I can come up with would be Andersson, Weegar, and maybe Pionk if Winnipeg falls back this year?
I think we have to hope that Nurse gets himself together and/or Broberg hits the ground running as a top 4 defenceman like Bouchard and Klefbom did. If not, we're going to have a serious problem to solve.
