Quote:
Originally Posted by Bingo
So in this world you say Gudbranson won't be an effective player and if he sucks you're right. But if he doesn't suck you're still right and the player defied the odds?
Ok ....
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I don’t much care about being proven right or wrong (that idea was brought up by someone else, not me). The point is that one outlier year — where he was effective in a very specific, sheltered role — does not come close to annulling the 10 years where he was one of the least effective players in the league. They got it to work, although the underlying numbers from last year point to Gudbranson going from being well below average to merely average in Calgary. I find it hard to believe his performance last year is indicative of any sort of trend. He didn't turn into MacKenzie Weegar — he turned into essentially a solid #5/6 in a very strong system after consistently being a #7-calibre guy in systems both good and bad over the span of a decade.
I don't think it does a whole lot to affect someone's credibility if they said Gudbranson was a bad bet for Calgary and he turned out to be a slightly better player than average. He played against much weaker competition than he had in the past and I wouldn't be surprised if someone like Connor Mackey is already more effective in that same role. I'm glad he got his big deal in Columbus and I think they'll be in tough if they try to paint him as a top-four guy.
I dunno why we're discussing Gudbranson in a 2022 camp thread, though, so I'll leave it there. I wish him all the best.