Quote:
Originally Posted by ricardodw
How will Sutter work with possession black holes Zadorov and Pitlick replacing possession stars Ryan, Lievo, Gio , Stone and Nordstrom? 5 out of the top 10 possession players from last year are gone. 6 out of 11 when including Bennett
The Flames will likely be a harder team to play against but their possession stats will likely fall out of the upper echelon.
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Certainly a concern for sure.
I'd put it down to Giordano and Ryan though, not too worried about the others given career averages, ice time and role.
Coleman is a possession beast as well, and will have a way bigger forward impact than Ryan did (same reasoning; ice time, role)
Pretty sure we will still see a Stone signing as well.
But Giordano is certainly a hole to keep an eye on.
Tanev has to have a similar season, Hanifin has to prove it wasn't a blip, and Valimaki and Andersson have to get back on the tracks they were on.
Zadarov is similar to what Stone used to be. Didn't move the needle offensively or in transition to have positive splits, but his actual prevention stats were always decent. Zadarov in CA60 is basically a 4th defenseman, in xGA60 he's 3rd defenseman (opposite of all the Nurse talk this week).
Not a complete 200 foot defenseman but pretty decent on the prevention side of the puck.