Quote:
Originally Posted by Cali Flames Fan
Engelland has zero puck skills and agility. Cory Sarich looks like a Paul Coffey compared to him. Yes, he's picked up his defensive zone awareness and physicality, and has done better in terms of trying to get pucks out with regularity, but he's barely a 3rd pairing defenseman in the current NHL. If you're going to succeed in the new fast-paced, skilled NHL, all 6 defensemen need to be able to skate a puck out of harm's way, or at least do more than ice it when pressured.
Lots of character and effort, but his talent is nearly at Brian McGrattan levels. I'd be happy with him as a 7th d-man going forward, but having him on our second pairing is very much less than ideal.
This is not to say I don't appreciate what he's done in the absence of Giordano, but having him on the 2nd pair points to the fact that we still seriously need to upgrade our defense, especially NHL level depth.
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You are drastically underrating Engelland. I agree he's a 3rd pairing guy, and he's a physical defensive specialist, not a puck mover, but he is much better than Cory Sarich was near the end of his tenure here playing a similar role.
Agreed, he's out of his element being promoted to 2nd pair with Brodie, especiall when it's kind of a 1B pair. Hartley has relied on Wide's and Russell as top pair, but he's still using Engelland and Brodie in situations he likely wouldn't if we had our true number 1 pairing. I don't think this fan base should sell short that part of the reason we aren't missing Gio AS MUCH as we might have thought is for sure the stellar step up by Wideman and Russell, but also Engelland.
Engelland is a good 3rd pairing guy on any team in this league IMO, not just a 7. Problem in Calgary early on was he was paired with Smid, who is also a good 3rd pairing guy, but too similar game style to Engelland. They both have the same strengths and weaknesses, which is why, both of those guys actually work better with Diaz on that pairing, even though Diaz isn't actually as good as either IMO as an overall player, he's just a more complimentary guy to both of them.