Quote:
Originally Posted by ComixZone
No, but he's a 2nd pairing 40 point scoring 23 year old. Those don't grow on trees.
He's not here to be a top d-man, and he's not paid like a top d-man. He's a 2nd pairing guy right now, and that'll do.
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$5.75 on a second contract is top-dman money. Seth Jones, Hamphus Lindholm, Rasmus Ristolainen all make less than Dougie. Lindholm had to hold out for a month to get less than Dougie. Three players who make less than Dougie are their teams' top defensemen.
He is paid to be a player who can carry around an Engelland or Jokipakka for 20 of his 25 minutes a night.
Hamilton is far down my list of problems this year - he's been physical enough, he hasn't been awful defensively. If they insist on doing a 4-man PP, he should be the one D. Dougie's wrister isn't as good as Gio's, but it's still very heavy. And he's got a slap shot, something Brodie certainly doesn't possess, and Gio chooses not to deploy.
Gio and Brodie on the 2nd unit with Backlund, Frolik and Tkachuk should be an excellent group that should produce offensive zone time.
It would go a long way if our idiot coach would pick defensive pairings and stick with them. Especially in the top 4. Gio and Brodie should always play together. Dougie and the better of Kulak/Jokipakka should always play together. Mix and match the bottom pair however you like, but set the friggen defense pairings. The forward lines have been pretty well set in stone since game 1, with minor exceptions, yet our defense is thrown into a blender every night.
And if I have to hear Rick Ball talk about how Brodie prefers the right side but the Flames want him on the left one more time, I will go blind. Brodie is truly the best player on the team when he's going, and messing him about like they have been is not helping. Put TJ Brodie on the right side of the ice and leave him there. Let him make those ridiculous backhand cross-ice passes in the air, in stride, and let him lead the rush. Again I see some baffling inconsistencies with the way the forwards are handled vs the defense. All I hear about with the top line is how Gutshot wants to give them more minutes, reduce responsibility etc. When it comes to the defense? Let's rotate Wideman and Grossman in again. That'll do it.
There are a great many reasons I'm not the coach, but if I had Gio, Brodie and Dougie on my roster, and none of them were going particularly well, I would alternate force feeding each of them 30 minutes a night. They will figure it out, or they will die trying. And I'd like to think that each of those three would elevate themselves to the task were it thrust upon them.
The worst thing you can do for kids is to have no expectations, right? "Oh, it's just good you showed up", participation trophies etc. And I understand not wanting to heap too much on young players when they first enter the league. Matthew Tkachuk is not meant to lead us in scoring, for obvious reasons.
Dougie is in year 2 of a 6-year contract that pays him a not insignificant amount more than his peer group. This is his fifth year in the NHL. He may not have come into the season slotted as the #1 D. He is obligated to show the team and the fans that he is capable of that. When the other two top guys aren't sprinting out of the gate, he is obligated to pick up that slack. To lead. To impact games. To be the player we moved a 1st round pick to acquire.
This post is all over the map and only some of it is responding to ComixZone, but I'm not feeling an edit. To summarize: Don't trade Dougie. Build Dougie into the player he's capable of being. Give the players more responsibility, not less.