Two seasons ago Wideman had a turnaround season of sorts, after Hartley benched him. But a lot of things went right - he had really good chemistry with Gaudreau, he got his shot through consistently, he played within himself defensively.
I'm not sure what happened to change all that, other than losing even more foot speed (which was an issue even then). But last year he and Russell were not good together, he couldn't get a shot through, and he's not a guy who can recover well if a point shot gets blocked and the play goes the other way.
I think he's pretty close to untradeable because of his contract, without having to do a Bolland type deal. So they have to figure out how to use what skills he has (I agree he has a good shot, decent zone exit pass, ok on PK).
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