At the start of the year, the best thing you could say about the defense was: thank God for Edmonton. Most people would have ranked them at or near 29th in the league. But the reconstruction of said defense has been remarkable. To start the season, we had:
Giordano - Wideman
Brodie - Butler
Russell - O'Brien
Gio was coming back from an off year. Brodie was improving but young. Russell was a question mark. Butler was, well Butler. And O'Brien was, well, SOB.
But Giordano has gone full beast-mode, Brodie has made huge strides, Russell has been more than anyone expected (or even hoped), they added Smid, Butler is playing the best hockey of his career, Wideman was better than last year until he got hurt, and then was replaced with Wotherspoon who has been a pleasant surprise.
The Giordano - Brodie pairing has been one of the top pairings in the league over the last 20 games, IMO. (the stats back me up even if you think I'm crazy)
Russell and Butler work great together. And the Wotherspoon - Smid duo is surprisingly good.
All in all, the defense has gone from "I can't watch" and probably 29th in the league to decently competent and probably somewhere around middle of the pack. Pretty amazing transformation in a matter of half a season.
By the way, the current 6 is only 26.3 years old.
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