I bet Lindholm will be exercising like a mad man now. The spot is his to take after TC.
Fowler-Beauch
Sbisa-Lovejoy
Allen-Vatanen
I dont see any other way without making one pairing really weak.
What I find interesting is he injured it on July 17. He had surgery on July 25. The team only announced it now. And they only made a move (Fistric) now.
Maybe they finally had a followup visit and got a timetable just now? It also speaks to the lack of a hockey media presence. We pretty much only have the Register. Wood moved to PBP, and Stephens moved to the Reg. Although I believe Stephens was already mostly let go by the Times by then (he covered only home games or something?).
I Saying bout 2 weeks IN season Vatanen will have reached nrONE SPOT among team dfensmen.
I can see why the team might not want to announce it. I guess what I meant that it's still surprising that a) it took this long to sign a replacement and b) it wasn't leaked somehow before now.If it was announced Souray was going to miss some time, free agents and other teams could have upped their prices to the ducks knowing we were in trouble.
Smart move by a budget team. I had seen some Oiler fans claim Fistric wanted 1.8
As of right now Sbisa is our 2nd best healthy defenseman (behind only Fowler). He's not going to be traded or be sitting on opening night.
Disagree with you there. I'd take Allen and Lovejoy ahead of Sbisa until he proves to me he's better. Yes, he has more potential, but I haven't seen him be anything more than a decent 3rd pairing defenseman in his whole career. Lovejoy, Allen, and Sbisa are all 3rd pairing guys...Allen and Lovejoy being more proven.
Fowler Beauchemin
Sbisa Lovejoy
Vatanen Allen
Bring on the youth movement! Super stoked!!! Sucks for Souray but now we can see what we have here
Are you still going to be screaming for a youth movement if our blue line just isn't good enough? At what point does your obsession with youth become overshadowed by losing games?
Our season hasn't started yet and Vatanen looked half way decent on our blue last season. If we finally let him branch out we can see what we have here. I believe in these prospects to do good things here. Why don't you have any faith? You're always so damn critical Soj geeze man
I personally think Sami is 100% ready for a top 6 role. Lindholm is more of a wild card to me.
anyone think fistric could complement vatanen pretty good on the bottom pair? I feel fistrics extra footspeed makes them perfect partners for the bottom pair. Better than allen IMO
Sami looked halfway decent in a very sheltered role, in a handful of games. I think he's a talented kid, with a bright future, but all this youth movement stuff just screams of instant gratification with your shiny new toy, and that isn't how it works. Young players, even talented ones, need time to develop and you typically want to ease them slowly into the NHL. You don't just throw them off a cliff and expect them to fly. What happens, in your calculations, if Vatanen struggles a bit? If, like 99% of the young players, he has growing pains?
As for our youth, I have a lot of faith in them. I consider our prospect pool to be among the best in the NHL, and I'm absolutely thrilled to see what comes of it. On the other hand, I've also seen what happens to teams who need to lean on their youth to do heavy lifting, and most of the time it turns out pretty ugly. The number one reason? Young players are inconsistent.
Up front we're lucky because we still have the big boys in Getzlaf and Perry, and our hope is that our young forwards can provide secondary scoring. I actually think we're in pretty good shape there. We could even be one of the better offensive teams if the young kids can step up, and Selanne looks better than last season. On the blue line, however, we're in kind of a tough spot. Even if Beauchemin can start the season, I'm not optimistic he'll be 100%. That means we may only have one healthy top 4 defenseman in Cam Fowler. One. That doesn't fill me with warm, fuzzy feelings heading into the season. If Fowler can't take another big step, and Sbisa can't breakout, we might be in for a very tough start to the season. I'm not even going to get into your desire to start Gibson, while we have Fasth and Hiller.
What are we suppose to do with Sami? He's already dominated the AHL as a defenseman and with 8 gp in ANA he got 2 goals. You gotta eventually let the birds out the nest so they can fly. And I'm hoping its this year for the kid. We finally have a solid opportunity to see this guy play until Souray is healthy. And I'm excited about it. But some members need to stop being so critical. And this "let them develop" is a bit overused on these forums. Let the kid have some real NHL time and then critic the performance.
I'd go with this:
With Beauch:
Fowler-Beauch
Sbisa-Lovejoy
Allen-Vatanen
Fistric
Lindholm starts in the AHL
Without Beauch:
Sbisa-Fowler
Lindholm-Lovejoy
Allen-Vatanen
Fistric
I miss Lydman already
Did you bother to read any of what I said?
Did you bother to read any of what I said?