Whose development were we rushing? Broberg has needed NHL games, Peru actually started looking better and he is not spring chicken of prospects, Joseph has experience and Kessel played a good chunk of last year. Playing through growing pains isn’t necessarily a death knell for these guys.
If we did play PO what’s the downside?
He’s an AHL quality defenseman so who cares. Kessel has been a disappointment and I never really saw the upside that others saw in him. Peru I agree was coming on but the odds he becomes a really solid piece on a contending team on a bottom pair are fairly low at this point. Anaheim fans are pretty unanimous that he’s still a solid 3 who can skate and eat minutes and that’s a sizable short term improvement at minimal cost while not blocking the Lindsteins down the road cause his deal will be up.
I agree but I don’t see the positive in Peru ever being a factor in the playoffs when they start playing real hockey and hit. Just a liability unless you can dress an extra skater as a DH on the powerplay.
Perunovich and Joseph are fodder at this point while I still have some hope Kessel can be a bottom pairing defenseman. My bigger concern would be rushing Lindstein’s development to atone for depth guys not being good.
Right. It would be one thing if this deal was made and Fowler still had 3.5 years of term left and Lindstein was in his first year in the AHL tearing it up and poised to be penciled into the lineup in 2025-26 but that’s not where we sit. Armstrong wants to compete now while not sacrificing the future and I’d say he’s been rather successful at this aim over the last 12 months.
Lindstein is not even here yet. I would have to imagine they will want him to play a year in the AHL next year. Even if they do want him in the NHL, which doesn’t seem like ideal development, they could still go bargain bin shopping in the off-season instead of now.
Who do you think is out there that can eat top 4 minutes, costs as little as Fowler does both AAV and asset wise while filling into Leddy’s slot seamlessly, and has a contract that expires either this year or not? The problem is there is no one on the roster who can serve as an adequate replacement for Leddy for a temporary or substantial period of time or is ready for NHL play in the 2024-2025 season. If there was, this trade doesn’t happen.
Right. I don’t think PO is in the long term plans, but it’s also why I am not afraid of ruining him by making him play more minutes. Peru might be the same. But what’s the harm in giving guys like PO, Peru and Kessel minutes? Kessel is the only one that might have something, but sending him down to the AHL at this point in his career isn’t going exactly good for his development either.
I would just keep playing the guys we have but distribute the work load more.
Fair enough, i'm definitely seeing that from a far. Truly hope he figures it out again, I love the young talent you guys have been stacking in Anaheim.
Why? The guys on the roster who would serve as replacements have already shown they are not capable of handling Leddy’s workload and that would still involve the other top 4 playing more than they should.
What the definition of not being able to handle it? If it’s that they haven’t been good enough to be a team with a backend capable of doing anything in the playoffs or even making them the yes, I agree. But that IMO should not be our goal this year.
And what difference does Fowler make? So we went from being a non-playoff team to…what exactly? You think Fowler makes the Blues a playoff team now?
Good post. I certainly wasn't clamoring to slot in Broberg to #1LD, but it occurred to me and others. Our excitement can make us a little myopic.
The 2nd in 37 years doesn't matter cuz we'll get it back. Biakabutuka is an ECHL/AHL tweener, so no loss there.
Yeah no doubt, I literally illustrated exactly what I liked that he did. U chose not to see it because he didn’t do anything flashy offensively which is probably all you ever see, kinda embarrassing.
