Quote:
Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe
I will argue that in today's NHL, your #1 D is just as important as your #1 C.
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And possibly more so. This was also true back in the 1980s, when the NHL was filled with defencemen whose childhood hero was Bobby Orr. Then the game changed, and the league filled up with goalies whose childhood hero was Patrick Roy (and coaches who all wanted to be Jacques Lemaire). Now we're back to the mobile five-man attacking unit again, but this time with good defensive systems and scientific goaltending; and to me at least, that's great hockey.
I remember when the Bruins made the SCF twice in three years with Ray Bourque on defence, Cam Neely on the wing, and 16 plumbers. On the 1990 team, the #1 C was Craig Janney, who was a good two-way player but couldn't hold a candle to Gretzky, Lemieux, Messier, Yzerman, or even Gilmour at his best. But Bourque on the blue line made every other player on the team that much more potent.
I think Parekh has that kind of potential. We'll see if he lives up to it.