I have seen a lot of 'Gudbranson sucks, why is he here' posts. Yes, I wasn't a fan of this signing, but it is hardly a stretch to figure out why he really is here.
What did this team set out to do in the off-season? I would say two things - become better defensively, and become much more difficult to play against and intimidating. Heck, Gudbranson is the 2nd 'scariest' player on the Flames right now, and he prevented Mackey from probably getting beat-up for being 'hard to play against' himself. Some people were upset with that, but I know I would much rather have Gudbranson taking care of that stuff that Mackey or whomever else.
We also know that Sutter reached out to him in the off-season. Obviously Sutter sees a role for him. I also assume that Sutter feels he can work with him, no? I am keeping my mind open on this one. I bet he will improve and provide Calgary with a lot of unnoticeable minutes. Why? That's what he did in Anaheim, Pittsburgh and Nashville, according to their fans. I bothered to go and look up their reactions, and they seemed to universally like him and wish that he was on their team still. I think the problem with Gudbranson is that he played too far up the lineup in Vancouver and Ottawa.
With that being said, Regehr was not the Regehr we remember until Sutter got his hands on him. Maybe he can really work with Gudbranson too? I am not saying he is going to quickly turn Gudbranson into Regehr 2.0, but what I am saying is that players often improve - especially defensively - when they buy-in and are given good coaching. Maybe - just maybe - Gudbranson is one of these under Sutter?
I think Zadorov was much worse during the preseason. I am terrified when the puck is on his stick, as his propensity for giving the puck away seemed pretty high. However, once again, I expect Zadorov to also improve. One thing about Zadorov is that I don't think he has ever been looked at as a 'steady defensive defencemen', and this is why he moves around. If there was a single defencemen in the NHL that I felt could turn into a Regehr 2.0, it would actually be him, given his mobility for a big man.
I am excited at what Sutter can turn both Zadorov and Gudbranson into. I worry a lot less actually about Gudbranson since I know he will be playing more limited minutes and against lesser quality of opposition. Maybe I would have been more livid like some posters are if Ward or Gulutzan were the coaches here. I just think that Sutter has a fairly decent track record of making defencemen like these useful, and sometimes even great. These are two big men with agility (yes, even Gudbranson - not a burner, but pretty good skating for a big man, that's for sure).
Instead of worrying about it or being all upset over it, I look at Kylington, Valimaki, Stone and Mackey, and know that if Zadorov continues to just throw pucks away, or if Gudbranson starts getting walked every game, that they will find themselves 'in the rotation' at least. Sutter isn't shy about sitting stars, why would he be shy about sitting non-stars? I think that there is perhaps no better coach in the NHL at the moment to squeeze the most out of those two defencemen. For those reasons, I am going to continue keeping an open mind about the both of them, and expect them to eventually be 'unnoticeable minute munchers' for the most part (except for the occasional big hits by both of them, or the occasional fight by Gudbranson sticking up for a teammate). If they don't become that, then I get to see what the team with Valimaki, Kylington and one of Mackey or Stone permanently in the lineup looks like too.
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