Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
The thing is that he's probably the smartest player on the team or one of the smartest as he won the Ivan Tennant Memorial Award and Bobby Smith Trophy in the OHL given to the top academic/scholastic player. I personally believe he's right up there with Tkachuk as untouchable at 24 years old and considering his size, skating and offensive production I just don't see any trade scenario that doesn't come back to haunt this team. He's really the only offensively gifted goal scoring defenseman in the organization and IMO simply not replaceable as this organization has a lot of good skating & passing defensemen but few of them can actually shoot the puck or have Hamilton's offensive instincts. I think fans have to realize he's not going to be Chara or Pronger and he doesn't have to be as a double digit scoring defenseman carries a lot of value on their own. Too many fans expect him to be everything when they really should be happy he's leading the league in goals by a defenseman is an advanced stats darling. As well we aren't talking about a smooth skating guy like Bouwmeester that has a muffin for a shot and isn't really offensively gifted. Hamilton is more than that and more than Bouwmeester ever amounted to.
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Fair enough, and you may be right. Hopefully, Treliving et al have a better read on him that either of us. Chara or Pronger is a false flag, which is why I used Hedman, a less violent projection.
Smart is good because you can't teach that. Though there is smart and then there is "hockey smart", so the scholastic stuff is not necessarily conclusive...