Seems that having a strong shutdown guy is important for coaching and line matching.
Sutter had Yelle who was not counted on to score and Conroy who could go out against the other teams top line and be counted on to not let them run wild.
Ryan would be sort of that role but was not used as a shut down guy and his WAR def wasn't that good since he got to Calgary. He was a solid WAR def his last year in Carolina. As well Backlund was pretty much done as a shut down guy after 2015-16 (according to WAR def)
Vancouver was in the same boat as Calgary. They had no solid WAR numbers for any forward.
Maybe that is a big reason that McDavid had an aberration of scoring and why when they actually ran into a team that had Lowry being paid to shut people down the Oilers got swept.
This seems like a really good trade for Vancouver. Someone with the same sort of WAR numbers on the offence side would be looking at 4M + Dickinson made 1.5 last year ... He will likely sign for less than 3M.
I guess this would be a moneyball sort of move. Make the team better on the cheap.
PS Magniapane (.44) was 2nd on the Flames in War def was far behind Tanev (1.43) Hanifin the likely #1 LD this coming year was .05 playing mainly with Tanev.
PPS Lindholm may not a #1C .01 on WAR offense .13 on WAR def
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