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Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
I would say to you, sir, that with the greatest possible respect, you are on crack.
Especially with regard to Burns, because that should be obvious by this point,
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What? Burns is the ultimate beneficiary of Marc Eduoard Vlasic carrying his pair in tough deployment so Burns' second pair can excel offensively with Pavelski, Thornton, Hertl, (+Marleau on PP). I like him but he is not a complete defenseman like Hedman, Karlsson, Giordano, Doughty, Keith, and Subban. He may be elite offensively in his role but those guys are elite offensively in a much tougher role.
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but OEL has been a hugely underrated guy for years and is biting at the heels of the top 5 guys. He doesn't get his due because Coyotes. It's always curious to me that people who have (quite rightly) been annoyed for years at Gio not getting his due are more than willing to dismiss a guy who's just as consistently underrated.
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OEL isn't underrated. He is a good defenseman who gets overrated because of the extended minutes he plays on the power play of a team that lacks the depth to have it any other way. His ES scoring is nothing special and defensively he is not as good as Giordano. He is an excellent PPQB who is a solid 5 on 5 defenseman - a solid #1 but not a top 5-ish guy like Gio.
You are seriously overrating defensemen who produce on the power play. Even a third pair guy like Sami Vatanen can do that. Being dominant at ES - defensivey foremost and translating that into offense - is more valuable. Burns is elite offensively but he would not be as productive if he played the type of shutdown minutes Giordano is tasked with. OEL has only outproduced Giordano once at 5v5 in the last four seasons and that was with Gio being one of the best defensive dmen in the league and letting Hamilton handle the offense.