Quote:
Originally Posted by Badgers Nose
That long? Isn't he already Wranglers' best defence man?
|
I just think D-men take time. Take Andersson for example, whom I think had a similar career trajectory. Called up for 1 game in 2016-17, similar to Brzustewicz last year. The next season he played 10 games on the 3rd pairing with Kulak as a 21 year-old, which is what Brzustewicz is now. Then Andersson had an almost complete season on the 3rd pairing with Valimaki/Kylington/Fantanberg as his partner, while the top 4 consisted of Gio, Brodie, Hamonic, and Hanifin. Only in 2019-20 he became a top 4 regular, splitting his time evenly with Gio, Hanifin, and Kylington as his partners, though I think he struggled a bit going from a +17 on the 3rd pairing to a -7 in the top 4. It took him another year getting propped up by Gio before things fully clicked.
Brzustewicz is the best D-men on the Wranglers. Though Miromanov looks pretty good in the AHL as well. I'm not trying to take anything away from Brz, I just think that playing in the top 4 in the NHL is a very tough task. Hopefully I'm underestimating him, and similar to Coronato, he absolutely blows my expectations out of the water.