Quote:
Originally Posted by FBI
I am LOVIN this guy. I was all aboard team Solo before and was quite pissed with him going on waivers. But I know he and Yan were very similar players and I had no idea Yan could be this good. Seems like a super stabilizing presence, not an exciting player but a “makes the smart decision every time” type player. The fact that it is looking like 1 of those 2 guys could really pan out for us is awesome. It’s pretty rare for an AHL D guy to be dropped right into a top 4 role and not see any drop off at all. Color me impressed.
You start to see the top 6 of the future looking quite good:
Parekh, Bru for the offensive talent
Bahl, Kuznetsov for the defensive talent
Weegar for the veteran presence
6th spot for whoever rises to the top: Bean,Pachal,Mews,Morin etc
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I was actually very worried we were going to lose him on waivers this year, so I'm very happy COL picked Solo. Kuznetsov plays a simple game, but he doesn't make many glaring mistakes, and has just been solid out there. He is just using his size and his stick well. He also does a very good job at clearing the front of the net, which is something the Flames have been missing on the Weegar pairing.
IMO he looks a lot more polished devensively compared to some of the previous AHL graduates in Andersson, Valimaki, Kylington, Solovyov, Mackey, and Kulak. I would argue that he even looks better than Hanifin in his first year playing for the Flames.
Finally, There's actually room for him to grow offensively. I could see him elevating his game by skating out the puck to lead a rush, and finding his shot similar to Zadorov.