Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric Vail
I disagree. Dallas drafted Grushnikov and Calgary traded for him hoping he would develop into a player like Tanev. They both knew he was never going to be a high flying offensive player. Both teams hoped he would be an excellent defensive defenseman.
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I think that’s the point though. I think there are some pretty strong statistical evidence to the fact that all nhl defensemen (especially including nhl level shutdown guys) almost always have decent to good offensive numbers as prospects. Very (very) few nhl defensive dmen track to having lengthy/good nhl careers without it.
My theory is that any nhl caliber dman has to be comfortable with the puck. Being a good defender only , good at clearing the front of the net, etc , on its own, at junior has a lot lower probability of translating at the nhl level.