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Originally Posted by FanIn80
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I have my own theory on that. I am betting that a lot of players on this list were a year older. Also, many of those players were from a different era - and era where defencemen had to be 'big' and defensive.
A great example is Micki Dupont - Landon Dupont's dad. He was a wizard out there too, but he wasn't big enough for the NHL (5'10"). He excelled at moving the puck and generating offence, but because he couldn't contain players in front of the net, teams just really never gave him much of a chance, and when the did, they probably didn't give him much of an opportunity to play his game.
This is the 'modern NHL' now. Defence in theory has completely changed from the 80's and 90's, and even the 2000's. Nobody cared about 'mobile D' back then except for some unicorns like Coffey. The priority was to box guys out from the net and make (and receive) hits. Now it is about mobility, stuffing plays rather than outright hits or 'clearing the crease'. Defencemen aren't really allowed to clear the crease anymore - that's called interference or crosschecking now.
Guys like Makar and Hughes are the pinnacle of what defencemen should be in the NHL now, IMO. Their ability to impact the game on the scoreboard at both ends of the ice by stuffing plays and then creating offence through a fast transition or by creating offence by attacking the net. These defencemen are catalysts in all areas of the ice. Parekh is trending that way.
Two things I love about Parekh on the Flames:
1) Flames have stated that they do not want to restrict Parekh's offensive game
2) They are working with Parekh at developing him defensively in stuffing plays like Hughes and Makar do, so that it results in a fast transition to offence - Parekh has embraced it and really loves doing that now according to that interview on 960 a few pages back
I will argue that in today's NHL, your #1 D is just as important as your #1 C. If the Flames ever want to win a cup, they will need both, plus a lot more catalysts on the team. They won a cup because they had many catalysts in key positions, and were well-coached. We should all be ecstatic that the Flames have a probable catalyst in place in Parekh moving forward, and they definitely have one in Wolf. Hopefully some of the existing picks and prospects develop into more, and that they find more in the upcoming drafts. We should all be very pumped for this kid.