Quote:
Originally Posted by TOfan
No Brodie is a top pairing d on every team in the league (off the top of my head) 8 he's not a true No1. He's not Aaron Ekblad, Alex Pietroangelo, Drew Doighty or Erik Karlson. He's Ducan Keith light.
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He was actually easily better than Pietrangelo/Ekblad last year, if you bother to look past narratives (Ekblad btw was not even consistently the clear best blueliner on his pairing, Campbell played a huge part in Ekblad's success, never mind him being a true #1). Pietrangelo too is inferior, albeit less so. Playing on a better team does not make you better individually.
We'll agree he's not Erik Karlsson offensively but I would say he is better purely defensively. No one in the NHL is Erik Karlsson offensively though.
He actually outproduced Doughty while playing with worse forwards, against better competition in a more defensive role with significantly less power play time. The only thing Doughty's "Norris" season wins out in health, as Brodie missed a handful of games. I am a huge Doughty fan and I know as well as anyone that he is a better game-impacter than his stats might show but I also know you can't overrate intangibles to the extent of making false statements. Even Doughty got humiliated pretty hard in the first round of the playoffs defensively - because no individual skater's two-way game alone is going to be flawless in the modern NHL not even Doughty, Chara, Lidstrom, or Keith. Once you get to a certain level defensively (Doughty might be a hair ahead of Brodie due to physicality) you need to cover that impact offensively (which Brodie does moreso. Don't be mislead by power play points). I give Doughty the edge in the comparision only because he has proven more with his two rings, not because TJ Brodie is not at a comparable level.
I agree, Brodie is Duncan Keith-lite. Or perhaps more accurately at 25 he was possibly indistinguishable from Duncan Keith at age 25. Duncan Keith currently btw may be the best all around defenseman in the world right now so that's hardly a criticism.
TJ Brodie is not only a "True" #1 but he is elite among "True" #1s.