Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay Random
That's fair to say. I get the impression Chicago preferred Levshunov because they viewed him as having a higher floor than the others – a safe pick.
I'm a big believer in the value of offensive defencemen. Paul Coffey found his offensive game as a sophomore in 1981-82, and that same year, Gretzky went from 164 points to 212. For six years Coffey scored a point per game or more for the Oilers, and for those same six years Gretzky scored 180 points or more each season. After Coffey was traded, Gretzky never matched that pace again.
I have very little doubt Parekh is going to help some NHL teammate score an extra 20 or 30 points a year. Every forward looks better when he has someone that skilled behind him to feed him the puck. A lot of hockey people seem to think differently, and would rather have a safe all-round defenceman than an offensive machine. So they draft guys like Levshunov instead.
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When you have an offensive talent like that on the blue line, it’s much harder to line match against.
You can’t match a forward on a D for 25 minutes a night, and the D will start every draw with 20+ feet of separation.
Elite offensive players don’t need that much space.