Quote:
Originally Posted by Tinordi
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Man is Wideman underrated around here. 4th in D scoring in the entire league. A plus player. Can easily log 25min+ per game. A solid leader and vet in the locker room. Now people think he's bottom pairing guy who will get
2nd unit pp time. The guy will be a fixture on the top PP unit and will probably see top 4 minutes all season long.
All I see from that chart is that Marc Methot is a good as Gio, Pietrangelo sucks, and Erhoff is a good as Weber. Using my own 2 eye balls, I was able to observe Wideman last season and noticed that his defensive lapses completely overblown. I've yet to see a compilation video of him in Flames uniform coughing up the puck like a lot of people constantly say he does. A lot of the offence is driven by him at ES. His skating, while not Brodie-like, is more then capable of having him ranked as a PMD. Basically, he's everything you'd hope a top 4 D can be.
While it may seem blasphemous to some, I'd have no issue having Hamilton on the bottom pairing, at least to start. Not a knock against him, but he's new to the team, is only 22, and still has room to grow. Just goes to show the depth this team now has on D. Barring that, I think we'll see Russel on the bottom pairing.
Gio - Brodie
Hamilton - Wideman
Engelland/Smid - Russel
or
Gio - Brodie
Russel - Wideman
Engelland/Smid Hamilton
I think once Hamilton is established and familiar with the team systems, he'll bump Russel to the bottom pair. I just don't like seeing Wideman playing on the bottom pair, knowing how well he moves the puck up ice. I also see Russel as being more capable of ''elevating'' players like Smid or Engelland then I do Wideman. Wideman kind of does his own thing, but he's got such great chemistry with the top 6 forwards. Hartley also loves Wideman.
Man is this depth great. When it's all said and done, I don't really think any pairing can be considered ''weak''. Such a fantastic issue for Hartley and his staff to have.