Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
I think a lot of it has to do with him failing the eye test for many. He makes a lot of mistakes for a veteran defenseman and even though he's got a reputation as a shut down guy in reality he's far from it. The reason he gets a lot of time on the PK is because he's one of those guys willing to put his body in front of shots and that's very admirable and probably his best quality but 5 on 5 he's very, very average. I don't think he's terrible but I also think he's a 2nd pairing defenseman with one foot into 3rd pairing defenseman. Not a guy you hand out money and term to IMO.
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I agree with the last part, he’s a 4 on the verge of being a 5. And I wouldn’t give him a raise, actually. But I disagree on the amount of mistakes he makes. And he’s a lot better at winning puck battles and clearing than most of the defencemen on the team. He gets left as the sole defender by his partner and the forwards a lot, and then people blame him for the resulting goal.
And for those comparing him to Stone, even this year he’s better than Stone has ever been. Russell was a one trick pony - the two aren’t comparable at all.