Quote:
Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814
Dion's was the most explosive defenseman in the game at the beginning of his career. It's obvious that he isn't the player who was the third Calder nominee with Crosby and Ovechkin.
His downfall is entirely injury related - If he could still move like he was 23, he'd be a 9M player.
When I watched Nurse at the World Juniors, I saw a kid who has all the tools to be a devastating defenseman in the NHL. We should be so lucky if the Oilers ruin him.
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Let's not exaggerate, he was a good rookie defenceman. At the time, there were many defencemen who were better scorers and/or hitters.
At 23 he was an OK skater, but not great. He had a one legged push and wasn't especially mobile laterally. Nurse is a better skater than Dion was as a rookie. His big injury which would have affected skating was a hip injury in 09. But he was a poor skater, especially that season, before the injury, so it can't be explained away like that. And there's never been a suggestion that it was something that was supposed to affect him thereafter, with no improvement.