Quote:
Originally Posted by TOfan
Is Gio the only guy Brodie can play with? Honest question.
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Based on what criteria? Being an elite top pair? Yes, since Gio is the only top pair defenseman Brodie has played with.
Or do you mean analytics? Because Brodie-Hamilton are analytically a 56.67% Goals% and 52.29% CF% pairing. And I'm pretty sure they never played together in 2014.
Actually, if we're just talking about GF% which is a flawed but less terrible version of plus minus, Russell-Brodie (55%) and Brodie-Stone (54.55%) have higher GF% than Giordano-Brodie (52.63%) did. So that's three players Brodie can play with and produce results.
Kris Russell (A bottom pair defenseman)
Mike Stone (A bottom pair defenseman)
Dougie Hamilton (Another guy labelled as dependant on his partner... Chara... Giordano... hmm)
Besides that? None of Hamonic, Stone, Wideman, Engelland, or Chris Butler are true top four defensemen... the best of the bunch is Hamonic and he's really a #4/#5 tweener living off a physical style that attracts peoples' eyes and the reputation of one year where his on-ice save percentage was off the charts with Halak behind him. He is often a turnover machine with a poor stick and poor entry denial - and it's not just evident with Brodie but also on our penalty kill with Giordano where he is burned night in and night out. But despite all that, this 5v5 pair (Brodie-Hamonic) is actually on the ice for less than two goals against per 60 minutes (1.93), which is actually pretty good. Giordano-Hamilton are on the ice for 1.89 goals against per 60 but produce more offense. Now Brodie is not playing his correct side for offense and Hamonic is not an eighth of the offensive player that either Giordano or Hamilton are, not to mention an on-ice SH% of 5.66 is just as likely to be influenced by the struggles of forward lines and Gulutzan's absolutely banal, passive systems as it is by one defenseman who is two - not four which your Kent Wilson article would tell you - years removed from being top 3 in even strength point rate in the entire damn NHL just behind Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson.
Giordano is generally the best defenseman Brodie has played with. That doesn't mean Brodie is inept away from him any more than it means Hamilton is inept away from Giordano.
Let's get real, people who want Brodie traded do so because they buy into trash like +/- or overstate one individual's contribution to goal events because they have a narrative to spin. Brodie's been one of the top shot suppression defensemen in the league, period, for a long time. That even includes last year where he was Dennis Wideman's partner. Sometimes that doesn't result in saves, or can't result in your partner getting walked, or can't result in a poor play by one or more of your five teammates on the ice. And yes - sometimes that makes your own gaffes more blatantly obvious than that of your teammates who defend in a style that some view as more aesthetically pleasing. It makes a turnover like the one he made tonight (which happens to good players all the time) easy to make goat horns for, resulting in a thread like this, even if you had a two assist night where you were on the ice for three ES goals for. A guy who has, in the last 41 games (or... half an NHL season) playing mostly with Hamonic (46.70% aggregate), has been 52.14% aggregate for on-ice high danger chances. Yeah, Brodie is just terrible. Total liability. His partner's just carrying him this year.
Brodie does suck at some things... I wouldn't have him QBing my PP1 half as long as Gulutzan had him do that. I wouldn't have him standing at the point floating long wristers hoping for a deflection the way Jerrard and Gulutzan want our defensemen to play. I wouldn't play him on the left side at all outside of an injury situation to a guy like Giordano. But I sure as **** wouldn't trade him because Kent Wilson wrote an article saying that he was "on the decline" in a season where he probably should have been a Norris contender barring eight missed games.
There are contending teams that would pay the jokey costs people are tossing around for Brodie in this thread in a heartbeat and reap the rewards as they play styles and with players that can produce offense. Imagine Brodie setting up Alex Ovechkin with that backhand of his. Hope we get a 2nd for him!!
