Quote:
Originally Posted by CN10
Of course a 21 year old defender playing his first batch of NHL games will be sheltered by any competent coaching staff.
I also did not say anywhere in that post that I felt he was being held back. I just stated that I felt he played well on the bottom pair compared to my expectations of a green injury fill-in. I preferred his performance despite having to be sheltered much more than some of the Bartkowski & Jokipakka's the Flames have played there in previous years.
This season I like that he was forced to compete for a bottom pairing role with a veteran (Stone, MacDonald) and appears to at least have won a time share of the spot for the time being. In my post I simply indicated that I expect he will continue to grow and eventually pass Stone as the preferred guy on the bottom pair, mostly due to his superior skating and puck moving, on a team that has indicated throughout preseason that they intend to play fast.
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Yeah sorry ... wasn't trying to put words in your mouth.
Just trying to put some perspective on where the player is.