Is Brodie now a 3rd pairing DMan?

[DoubleF]

My guess is...

Brodie as 3rd pairing is silly. If anything, Hamilton should go to 3rd pairing. Earned not given.

However, IF Hamilton is with Gio for "tutoring" (for the sake of argument), IMO, Brodie holds a 2A/2B tandem with Wideman and Russell + other random player mixture. Those 4 players will mix in different combos until some type of chemistry mix that works consistently. "Other random player" might even be a trade for a player that can do good #4/5 duties with Brodie that fits our team mold. Who knows. But IMO, it's more likely Engelland until Morrison, Nakladal or someone else steps up.

[Dan02]

Originally Posted by Fire

Giordano - Hamilton
Brodie - Wideman
Russell - Engelland/smid

Those definitely look like some solid pairings to me, everytime i see someone suggest Wideman and Englland/Smid together i shudder at the number of times we're going to see a speedster go around them.

Wideman needs to be with someone whose got speed to make up for his complete lack of it.

[ricardodw]

Originally Posted by Bandwagon In Flames

I think the majority of CP thinks Brodie now is currently better than Hamilton, but you have to consider that Hamilton is 3 years younger. He was an established NHLer at 18 and it's exciting to think of what he can do in the Flames offensive system. Hamilton has a lot of desirable attributes that you want in a top pairing defenseman.

And it quite an accomplishment being an established NHler at 18 considering his first NHL game was Jan 19 2013 ... BD June 17 1993...

[Reggie Dunlop]

Good problem to have.

A blueline so strong you could mix and match.

[ScorchyScorch]

Gio - Brodie
Russell - Hamilton

Gives you the best possible top 4 that can hold their own against anyone's top 6. Russell seemed to have found a new gear in his offensive game towards the end of the season, and still being relatively young I think could thrive in that regard with Hamilton. Develop long term pairings. All 4 guys will be here for another 5+ years barring moves. Wideman, while effective offensively isn't as much in the long term plans. You build 1a/b pairings you can roll with for the next several seasons. Utilize Wideman on the PP where you can make use of his offensive game.

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by Fire

Giordano - Hamilton
Brodie - Wideman
Russell - Engelland
Smid - Nakladal
Wotherspoon - Morrison

Make the most sense in my opinion. I also don't see the need to keep Russell and Wideman or Giordano and Brodie together.

This is pretty much our depth projections with RH and LH shots staying where they should be. Brodie can play both sides in the event of injury or if Hartley wants to shorten the bench. Ryan Wilson may grab a job as well since Smid may not be ready.

[ScorchyScorch]

Hamilton is pretty close to Brodie's level right now...except he's a few years younger*. That tells you a lot about where he'll project to be. Brodie's effectiveness comes from his skating ability allowing him to join the rush as an extra forward and still get back to defend, and setting up plays with great passes. Dougie has a bigger frame and can do it all. By Brodie's age he'll probably be pumping out similar points to Wideman's last season or better, while doing things right in his own zone.

[Tinordi]

Brodie's in a category of his own in denying shooting opportunities in the crease. Not a 3rd pairing defenceman.

From this story: http://www.tsn.ca/you-don-t-have-to-...ceman-1.358467

Also: Yikes Wideman.

[pgsieve]

I am surprised so many people are writing off Russell. I thought he was one of the better D we had last year and he is still a relatively young guy. To me.. Russell was intentionally put on a different line from Brodie to even up the defence. If we went with Brodie/Russell when Gio went down, we would have a much bigger hole on the 2 D pairing. I don't mind Russell/Hamilton as the second pairing and you put Wideman on the third pair so he has more gas and can be more of a PP specialist.

[Itse]

Regardless of pairings, I hope we see Wideman on ice with Gaudreau. Wideman was one of the best last season at taking advantage of Gaudreaus passes.

I guess that speaks highly of Widemans hockey IQ.

(I'm sure that will happen on PP at the very least.)

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by pgsieve

I am surprised so many people are writing off Russell. I thought he was one of the better D we had last year and he is still a relatively young guy. To me.. Russell was intentionally put on a different line from Brodie to even up the defence. If we went with Brodie/Russell when Gio went down, we would have a much bigger hole on the 2 D pairing. I don't mind Russell/Hamilton as the second pairing and you put Wideman on the third pair so he has more gas and can be more of a PP specialist.

Russell's strengths come into play when he has the puck.

In the defensive zone, without the puck, he severely struggles in regaining possession. He and Wideman both struggle with this. Their solution to getting the puck back is blocking a shot, and hopefully having it go to one of their forwards or defensive partner.

However, when they do have the puck - both Wideman and Russell are quite good at moving it up the ice and pushing the offensive tempo.

1A: Giordano
1B: Brodie
2: Hamilton
3: Wideman
4: Russell
5: Engelland
6: Smid

[Vinny01]

Brodie will be top 4. Either Russell or Wideman moves to the third pair.

Gio-Brodie
Russell- Hamilton

Gio-Hamilton
Brodie-Wideman

Gio-Hamilton
Russell-Brodie

Brodie-Hamilton
Gio-Wideman

[Poe969]

I don't think it matters. I think they'll all play top pairing at some point and they'll all play third pairing at some point. The Flames have 5 pretty awesome defenders and depending how camp goes, they may have 6 or more. Having that much talent on the blue line just means you have to go with what's working at the time and lets face it, some guys will get hot and some will get cold. As for who plays with who, it depends on who develops the most chemistry. I loved the chemistry between Russell and Wideman but they will likely have to be broken up, Gio and Brodie were the best pair in the NHL for a while but Gio and Hamilton may be better. Heck, we may see a kid like Morison step in and have great chemistry with Gio.

I think they'll all have the chance to be top pairing at some point and I think they'll all be pushed to work as hard as bottom pairing guys and earn the right to more ice time.

[Huntingwhale]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

Brodie's in a category of his own in denying shooting opportunities in the crease. Not a 3rd pairing defenceman.

From this story: http://www.tsn.ca/you-don-t-have-to-...ceman-1.358467

Also: Yikes Wideman.

Man is Wideman underrated around here. 4th in D scoring in the entire league. A plus player. Can easily log 25min+ per game. A solid leader and vet in the locker room. Now people think he's bottom pairing guy who will get 2nd unit pp time. The guy will be a fixture on the top PP unit and will probably see top 4 minutes all season long.

All I see from that chart is that Marc Methot is a good as Gio, Pietrangelo sucks, and Erhoff is a good as Weber. Using my own 2 eye balls, I was able to observe Wideman last season and noticed that his defensive lapses completely overblown. I've yet to see a compilation video of him in Flames uniform coughing up the puck like a lot of people constantly say he does. A lot of the offence is driven by him at ES. His skating, while not Brodie-like, is more then capable of having him ranked as a PMD. Basically, he's everything you'd hope a top 4 D can be.

While it may seem blasphemous to some, I'd have no issue having Hamilton on the bottom pairing, at least to start. Not a knock against him, but he's new to the team, is only 22, and still has room to grow. Just goes to show the depth this team now has on D. Barring that, I think we'll see Russel on the bottom pairing.

Gio - Brodie
Hamilton - Wideman
Engelland/Smid - Russel

or

Gio - Brodie
Russel - Wideman
Engelland/Smid Hamilton

I think once Hamilton is established and familiar with the team systems, he'll bump Russel to the bottom pair. I just don't like seeing Wideman playing on the bottom pair, knowing how well he moves the puck up ice. I also see Russel as being more capable of ''elevating'' players like Smid or Engelland then I do Wideman. Wideman kind of does his own thing, but he's got such great chemistry with the top 6 forwards. Hartley also loves Wideman.

Man is this depth great. When it's all said and done, I don't really think any pairing can be considered ''weak''. Such a fantastic issue for Hartley and his staff to have.

[Coach]

Bouma - Stajan - Ferland
Bennett - Backlund - Jones
Colborne - Shore - Jooris
Gaudreau - Monahan - Hudler
Bollig, Raymond

Gio Brodie
Hamilton Wideman
Engelland Russell

Gaudreau Monahan Hudler is now in a forth-line, grinder role. Because I typed it that way.

[johnnybegaudreau]

Posted this on Twitter.
But my gut tells me it will be
Brodano - first pairing.
Engelland - Hamilton - Second Pairing.
Russell - Wideman - get pushed down and are now the third pairing.

The way mgmt keeps talking up Engelland lately they either think he's better than he is or they're trying to attract a trade partner.
Bob doesn't seem to be the type to tinker too much and one things for certain he loves his d-pairs so I think everything stays the same except for Engelland gonna see a few more minutes.

[johnnybegaudreau]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

Man is Wideman underrated around here.

You do realize that top right quadrant is "bad" right? like not a good thing at all.
Moreover, everything else you said points to exactly how lucky Wideman was last year probbaly the luckiest on the team.

Thank god He and Russell will be third pairing not 2nd this year.

[foshizzle11]

Ya, I bet we see a lot of Gio and Brodie paired together for most of this season, at points in time we will see Gio with Dougie. Who knows, by the time we are talking next season, Gio and Dougie will be even better than Brodano was last year...

This doesn't seem like a problem for me or for the coaching staff. Our top 6 dmen are good. Any pairing the coaching staff choose will be good. I agree with many above. Keep Gio/Brodie together, split Russell and put Dougie/Wideman together, then Russell/Engelland on the 3rd pairing. Gio/Brodie won't be logging as many minutes as last season because of the Dougie trade, so we will get better overall performance IMO from all of our defenseman.

This just doesn't seem like a problem at all to me. We will be good no matter how the coaches decide to play these guys. We know all these guys are NHLers. Now if one or two go down with injury, then you start to worry about who else is ready for regular NHL time. We don't know that Smid is 100%, so I am worried about that.

[Huntingwhale]

Originally Posted by johnnybegaudreau

You do realize that top right quadrant is "bad" right? like not a good thing at all.
Moreover, everything else you said points to exactly how lucky Wideman was last year probbaly the luckiest on the team.

Thank god He and Russell will be third pairing not 2nd this year.

I didn't realize hockey was played on quadrants of paper instead of an ice surface. My bad . Again, I guess Marc Methot is as good as Gio, right? Because the quadrant tells me so.

And how exactly did I what I post point to Wideman being ''lucky''? What does that even mean? He's an offensive Dman and has always been able to put up points, always been able to play big minutes. He has less brain farts then he did playing with Boston. And he moves the puck up ice quickly and has good chemistry with the skilled forwards.

He might not put up the 56pts he did last season, but I'll bet if he stays healthy he'll get pretty close to 50 again. Wideman moving down to the bottom pairing is not a reflection of his play, it's because we have the depth to do so.

[saillias]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

Brodie's in a category of his own in denying shooting opportunities in the crease. Not a 3rd pairing defenceman.

From this story: http://www.tsn.ca/you-don-t-have-to-...ceman-1.358467

Also: Yikes Wideman.

Ahhh Suddenly Craig Button's World Cup defense makes a lot more sense. The official position of TSN is that Pietrangelo isn't good. If Button disregarded the information Yost is putting out there in articles like the one above and this one: http://www.tsn.ca/a-closer-look-at-h...cemen-1.344997 Yost loses credibility.