Sandin has blown away my expectations this year. The numbers he put up in the AHL as an 18 year old are great, and he has a high hockey IQ. I will readily admit that on draft day I was cursing at the TV screen for passing on Veleno, but Sandin right now has shown that he was a great pick, and in my mind would/should go top 10 in a redraft. I think next year we see Sandin get the same treatment as Liljegren this year in that they scale back the PP time a bit, and use him heavily on the PK, giving him the Rielly treatment where the focus is on the D-side of the puck. With his hockey IQ, he should develop a nice defensive game to compliment his offensive prowess.
Liljegren has exceeded my expectations in the way he has embraced the defensive side of the game, and showed a willingness to put the time in at the gym to bulk up so that he can succeed defensively in the board battles and in front of the net. These aspects of his game were question marks on draft day, and it was thought his strength would be largely in the offensive end, and that his defensive game would hopefully be passable. His offensive instincts and game that enamored him with so many is still there, but much like Rielly in his 1st seasons with Babcock, it has been reigned in to develop and focus on the other side of the puck. You can see that with the match ups he was given, the heavy D-zone start %, and the minimal PP time he received this season. When the reigns are off I think we could see a real two-way player that is a better version of what we had hoped. I would gladly rather settle for a two-way D that puts up 40-50 pts, than an offensive D that is a liability at the other end who puts up 50-60 pts, but takes the unnecessary risks to get the extra 10 pts that was characteristic of Liljegren's game beforehand. It has never been about hockey IQ with Liljegren, but risk vs reward. He now seems to be much more mindful of the risk.
