Quote:
Originally Posted by Torture
I'm amazed that people are still frustrated we have Stone. Without Stone you're in scary territory the second one of the top 4 goes down. Having Stone able to step up is a huge asset. Which lineup would you rather ice right now?
Gio / Hamilton
Brodie / Stone
Kulak / Anderson
or
Gio / Hamilton
Brodie / Bartkowski (scary)
Kulak / Anderson (scary)
Even when everyone is healthy it's a huge benefit for the rookies to have them paired with Stone rather than Bartkowski or another rookie. That way you have a solid defensemen that can set them up for success rather than repeated fire drills.
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No question that 5 D that are capable of stepping into the top 4 is an amazing luxury, but we gave up a lot to get there.
We just gave up a 1st+ for Hamonic, which is a steep price to pay. We signed Stone for 3 years, reducing our flexibility. How much would our performance, both short and long term, have been affected if we only did one of those two, replaced them with Andersson/Kulak/Kylington (Bartkowski is shot into the sun in this parallel universe), and then used those assets differently?
I guess I see this current line-up being our best overall lineup and state of the team (where we would have kept the assets to get Hamonic), but you are absolutely correct that it goes south rapidly with any more injuries.