Quote:
Originally Posted by GioforPM
Good defensive defencemen don't tend to get credit for lots of hits in the modern game. They get hit more by forecheckers than they hit. Engelland hit more because he got to the puck second. Hamonic usually gets to the corner first for a puck, so he gets hit. And I never thought of Hamonic as a real fighter (as opposed to a guy who would stand up for his teammates).
I don't think Hamonic has had the a good start. But when Hamonic is on he plays great positional defence, boxes out the net front well, wins puck battles and makes a good simple outlet pass. But he is better when the D side isn't all on him like when he played with Brodie or, to a lesser extent, with Hanifin. I thought he was really good with Gio, actually.
What I do think is that Andersson can successfully play Hamonic's game, but maybe with more offence. I wasn't expecting that before, when I suggested Brodie was going to be moved (because I thought Brodie's skill set was covered off better by the young guys).
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The stats for hits on Hockey Reference only go back to 2008, but Robyn Regehr never had fewer than 120 hits a season as a Flame. You can be good defensively and still hit guys when you're in position to finish your check.
Hamonic was sold as one type of player, but he hasn't really been that guy since he's been here. Like Bouwmeester. A bunch of us, myself included, thought we were getting a Norris trophy level player. We weren't.
Don't get me wrong, Hamonic is a more than passable top-4 defenseman. It sucks we overpaid for him, and I don't want us to do it again by doing something stupid like giving him $4.5M for five years.
On the flip side, if he signs for less, he can continue to not hit people all he wants. Hamonic at $3mx4 years sounds great to me.