I'm with you. When TDL hits and it's time to upgrade, Stetcher is the clear position to upgrade.
He doesn't scream playoff performer in the slightest. He's 185lbs and been on 6 teams.
Not sure why some ppl are arguing we should stay status quo with him
It's not even a question. No disrespect to the player who's carved out a solid journeyman career as an undersized d-man. He's a good utility #7 for playoff depth. It was pretty clear game 1 when Knoblauch/management opted to sign a camp invite Dermot and play him on his off-shooting side above Stecher who sat.
Knoblauch's deployment fix has Kulak minutes +3 avg toi and filling the 2RD hole in key situational play with Nurse. Emberson is locked in at 3RD with top PK responsibilities added. Stetcher is slotted in for 10 to 14 minutes, somewhat similar ice-time to Emberson except Emberson gets special teams responsibility bump.
The beautiful thing is with Kulak handling the increased responsibility and toi in an excellent pairing with a resurgent Nurse, this team will have flexibility to add either a top 4 right shot D (greater scarcity & more costly) or a left shot #4-5 who can ideally pivot between 3LD and 2RD.
Regular season is not hard, heavy series based playoff grind hockey. The Oil have shown strong team defense befitting a window phase team. They're running a top 4 d averaging over 20 minutes toi that drops to 14-15 managed minutes for the bottom roster guys.
Oil first add will be a bigger body d-man that can face down likely big, heavy bottom six lines like the ones Vegas likes to run. Big, strong, diverse and deep defense corps are the backbone for Cup championship teams.