It's a high-risk, high-reward contract for the Flyers.
Gostisbehere has some high natural talent and skills. Great offensive skills, well above average skating and solid puck moving skills. The ideal skillset looked at for the "new" defenseman. But he's raw. Very raw.
He's small and not good in his own zone, he's a defensive liability. At least as a rookie he was able to contribute offensively to overshadow it, but last year, outside of the PP, he didn't. He had the same amount of even strength points as Engelland at 16. You can blame his defensive partners, as he did have some crappy ones, but at this point he's closer to a PP specialist in terms of skill set (not potential).
It's only his sophomore season in the NHL, if he puts it all together, it's a great deal. If he doesn't, which is just as likely for a 24 year old defenseman, he could become another Del Zotto like defenseman.
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He seems similar to Brodie to me but in the reverse. That is, he's above average offensively (Brodie is below average here) and below average defensively (Brodie is above average).
He seems similar to Brodie to me but in the reverse. That is, he's above average offensively (Brodie is below average here) and below average defensively (Brodie is above average).
Back-to-back 40+ point seasons, four seasons in a row with 30+ points. In no way is Brodie below average offensively. Heck, Gostisbehere had an entire one more goal this season than Brodie.
Gostisbehere is legitimately below average defensively though. Healthy scratched multiple games this year because of how bad he was in his own zone. It's easy to look the other way when he's a sophomore making peanuts, but now that he has his contract and the inevitable higher expectations of Flyer fans, he'll need to get his stuff sorted out or they'll quickly turn on him.
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He seems similar to Brodie to me but in the reverse. That is, he's above average offensively (Brodie is below average here) and below average defensively (Brodie is above average).
Brodie had an unlucky season offensively, no doubt driven by a banal system and side of the ice that doesn't suit his preferred style of play, but that doesn't make him below average offensively. I'll defer to AC's video here:
That is a player who was third in even strength production as a defenseman just a year ago.
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Flyers sign Gostisbehere to multi year deal (6 yrs, $4.5 mil AAV)
