Quote:
Originally Posted by GranteedEV
My guess is probably that Sutter wants more out of his $4M veteran defenseman, and isn't quite ready to pull the plug on the acquisition 8 games into the season.
Zadorov hasn't been good, but there is an expectation that he will be better today than he was Saturday night.
Still not a fan of that pair's inability to move the puck, but you look back to the job Zadorov-Cole did on our top players in the 2018-19 playoffs and you can see why Sutter wants him to at least start playing well. Despite Gudbranson's success so far, maybe Zadorov-Valimaki is a higher-ceiling pair. Step 1 is getting Zadorov performing to a high level before putting him with the potentially erratic young kid while moving said kid to his off-side.
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The thing of it for me, and I’m sure most of us, is Valimaki can’t be sent to the minors without waivers and would get claimed 100% so he needs to play regularly in order to continue to develop.
It’s two games so I’m not going to assume anything and it’s likely Sutter pushing Valimaki to be the best he can be but I will not be happy if he continues to scratch him.
I don’t see Zadorov as a guy that re-signs here so I hope the focus is on the development of Valimaki. With all the time he has missed due to injuries the last thing he needs is to be continually shunned to the press box.
Only reason I comment on this is because the other 5 seemingly have solidified their spots so to me Zadorov should be our #7.