Rumor: THN: Possible Kris Russell Destinations: Calgary or New Jersey

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Doesn't Ottawa have a fairly crowded blue line with Karlsson Phanuef Methot Ceci and Wideman Borowiecki being above #7 Dmen

he'd be a pretty decent upgrade on borowiecki. borocop is a decent #6, but a bottom pairing upgrade would make our defense look really solid. one injury hits our left side and we're playing a #6 in the #4 spot.

right now, we're not really sure who our 7th guy is. knowing it's someone that won't hurt us like borocop is more appealing than having cleasson or kostka. cleasson needs to play and keep developing, kostka is really bad.

plus it makes losing methot to expansion (which we all expect to happen) a little easier to swallow. knowing we have someone that can step up and play #4 for a while would ease my mind a lot.
 
Not really. Severson or Lovejoy are likely replacing Larsson on the top pairing (which is still not a great trade off). Russell would be more like Schlemko's replacement.

This doesn't sound great for NJ. Severson is a quality guy, but if Ben Lovejoy has a sniff at your top pairing, that's trouble. He's not terrible, but top pairing? Yeesh.
 
he'd be a pretty decent upgrade on borowiecki. borocop is a decent #6, but a bottom pairing upgrade would make our defense look really solid. one injury hits our left side and we're playing a #6 in the #4 spot.

right now, we're not really sure who our 7th guy is. knowing it's someone that won't hurt us like borocop is more appealing than having cleasson or kostka. cleasson needs to play and keep developing, kostka is really bad.

plus it makes losing methot to expansion (which we all expect to happen) a little easier to swallow. knowing we have someone that can step up and play #4 for a while would ease my mind a lot.

Exactly. In that scenario, the Something Knights take Methot, leaving Ottawa to roll out the following in 17/18:

Phaneuf-Karlsson
Russell-Ceci
Chabot-Wideman

Not bad, assuming Chabot can make the jump. Of course, the Sens also have guys like Claesson and Englund ready to take that spot if Chabot doesn't grab it. I'm assuming one (or more) of these three supplants Boro.
 
I'd love to see him paired with Risto/2nd pairing

You don't, really you do not.

He's a good 5-6 with the ability to step up to 4. You don't want him at 18-20 mins a night playing a shutdown role.
 
You don't, really you do not.

He's a good 5-6 with the ability to step up to 4. You don't want him at 18-20 mins a night playing a shutdown role.

I don't see how a Calgary fan can say this. He was a solid #4 for us for two years.

When he got traded, we had the worst ten games of the season defensively. Hamilton and Jokki was a noticeable step down as a second pairing.

Even with Hamilton, he didn't get stuck in his own end nearly as much as with Wideman. Screw Corsi, his GF% were consistently good across two years compared to everyone else. I can't even count how many times I said "oh thank god he blocked that, that was a goal". People act like good 2nd pairing defenders don't let the other team take any shots at all haha.
 
This doesn't sound great for NJ. Severson is a quality guy, but if Ben Lovejoy has a sniff at your top pairing, that's trouble. He's not terrible, but top pairing? Yeesh.

It's more than likely Severson get's played with Greene on the top pair. I'd say it's a guarantee but I don't know 100% it is. Severson has played well with Greene in the past and it makes sense to kind of spread out the young guys and the veterans. Most Devils fans currently have our pairs as:

Greene - Severson
Merrill/Moore - Lovejoy
Merrill/Moore - Santini

I think at this point Merrill and Moore are third pairing guys until proven otherwise, so bringing in Russell to slot in on the 2nd pairing would be better. I have more hope in Merrill than I do Moore that he can turn it around and be decent on our 2nd pair, but ideally Russell comes in and gives us some more stability.
 
According to Wikipedia, he's already signed with the Devils. Does that count as a legit source?:laugh:
 
Haha, no he's not.

I just hope he doesn't end up in Toronto.


Why not hes good enough to play in your Top 4.. make your own opinion you sheep. Kris Russell is the Nickleback of the NHL
 
The way the World Cup exhibition games have gone so far, it won't be long until a big-named D gets injured and opens up a spot for Russell to sign.

It's probably a good thing that Team N. America isn't playing USA in round robin play.
 
Isn't Russell like a possession anchor? pairing him with Santini would be tough on the rookie.

Sure he would be an upgrade over Merrill/Moore, but still... better be a short term deal.
 
Isn't Russell like a possession anchor? pairing him with Santini would be tough on the rookie.

Sure he would be an upgrade over Merrill/Moore, but still... better be a short term deal.

He would probably play with Lovejoy on the second pairing.

The big question is how big of an upgrade he is. The depth is good as it is (LD: Greene, Moore, Merrill, Auvitu, Gormley, Helgeson), but unless Auvitu magically turns out to be Rafalski 2.0 they could really use one more LD for the top-4.
 
I am starting to hope that the Leafs do sign him to a short deal while he can't play top pair with Morgan Rielly but I do think he's good enough to be our #4 guy paired with Gardiner on the 2nd pair and at this point he can probably be had for cheap since training camp is what? week away
 
I am starting to hope that the Leafs do sign him to a short deal while he can't play top pair with Morgan Rielly but I do think he's good enough to be our #4 guy paired with Gardiner on the 2nd pair and at this point he can probably be had for cheap since training camp is what? week away

I still go by the saying: "where there's smoke, there's fire".

I do have a feeling Toronto is one of those teams negotiating with his agent. We'll see if it's anything close to the rumoured salary.
 

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