[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by Fire of the Phoenix

#1-3 are far, far more important than #4-6 so at least we have that signed up for the next 5-7 years.

Where we apparently disagree is how you regard our #4 and #5. Wideman as a 4 and Russell as a 5 is above average in my mind, good luck finding 15 teams with better 4/5's than those two. Just my opinion, I'm sure you disagree and/or think Engelland and Smid are below average #6/7s.

Lol at 'after Brodie, Gio and Hamilton'... yes, AFTER our 3 legit top pairing defensemen... it sounds like a self-defeating argument before it even begins. I'd much rather have a hypothetical defense composed of 3 #1s and 3 #6s and a #7 than 6 #3/4s, and a #6, but maybe that's just me? There's only so much ice time to go around and I would rather have elite players with weaker depth rather than a bunch of good depth players and that's it. Look at Chicago's defense, does it seem to hurt them that their bottom 3 is average? I'd say their overall D is still top 5, even with their rotating and disposable bottom 3.

When you have that good of a top 3, you can stand to have a Reinhart or a Nurse learning on the job, or even legit bad players like Gryba, Nikitin or Schultz, AND still have a top 10 defense. That's how much more important the top 3 is than the bottom 4 IMO. Personally I think we are fortunate to have quality vets like Wideman and Russell (who would be your 2/3 with a bullet) in those spots instead of the many other lesser players that could be there instead. There aren't many other options out there that are upgrades that wouldn't be wasted on our team because the top 3 is so good. Again, there's only so much ice time to go around.

You totally missed what he was saying...