[Cali Panthers Fan]

Some interesting thoughts in this thread about our defenseman going forward. My two cents:

-Stone's value dropped because he missed nearly the entire season with serious blood clot issues. That's the primary reason he dropped down the depth chart. He started the season playing regularly and was just fine.

-Hamonic is still a solid 2nd pairing d-man who does a lot of heavy lifting in his own zone, especially down low and in front of the net. We don't have enough defensemen who can do that, so you have to keep him unless you have prospects coming in who can do that kind of work. I don't see any at the moment. I get that he's getting older and we need to be wary of decline, but I'd be totally fine with him on another 3 year deal.

-Hanifin's value is in his zone exits and possession numbers. He's consistently on the right side of the ledger, and he always makes great decisions to get out of his own zone smoothly. His offensive production will come with age and experience, but he's never going to be the goal scorer Hamilton is/was. But then, who is? I'd like to see Hanifin work on learning the Hamonic style of game. He tends to lose coverage down low during a quick cycle, which leads to some big chances when he's on the ice. I firmly believe that can be learned and that Hanifin has the skills to be a #2 d-man down the road.

-Pump the brakes on Kylington's NHL capabilities. He's still borderline because he struggles under pressure and doesn't have enough NHL size to be a regular. I think he's still a very useful player, but he's not as complete as Andersson or Valimaki

-I see Valimaki/Andersson as our 2nd pairing of the future. Probably 2 seasons from now.

-Brodie is definitely the most likely player to be shipped out. He's reached his peak usefulness as a player and the major turnover gaffes are becoming semi-regular. While he's still a pretty good player overall, I think he's the easiest one to move in a trade for a decent return and also the easiest to replace in the lineup. Top pairing 5 on 5 minutes will be hard to replace internally, but I think it can be done between Andersson and Hamonic. Brodie's time on the 2nd PP can easily be replaced by Andersson, Hanifin, even Valimaki. I don't remember Brodie playing a lot of PK time.

-IF we do trade away BOTH Brodie and Stone, it really hurts our organizational depth that has been built up. I don't know enough about the other players in the system to say for certain they can handle NHL minutes. That's why I think the Flames hold on to Stone for the final year of his contract and hope that he recoups some value throughout the year. Two positives comes from keeping Stone: 1) we still have a solid injury replacement should we have a long playoff run, and 2) on the off chance we aren't a playoff team, Stone can be dealt for an adequate return at the deadline.

I'm betting this is our defense on opening night:

Giordano-Andersson
Hanifin-Hamonic
Valimaki-Stone
Kylington