Quoting: Newanda
How bad has Alzner been in MTL? My hope was pairing him with a more offensively minded D-man in Severson, and just count on Alzner to be a stay at home defensive D-man with some physicality.
Or is he no longer NHL caliber?
Alzner wasnt the problem
MTL signed a 4th/5th D to 2nd pair D money
then shoved him in a top pair role while he failed at .
despite putting him in a position to fail
his first year started off rough but he found a role surprise surprise as a 4th/5th D
he was 3rd in hits , 2nd in blocked shots producing at a similar pace to his last year in WSH
if MTL didnt completely change our system last year during a ''re-tooling'' from a physical game built on hitting to a speed based game then i think he would have started as third pair LD .Alzner did after all play 8 seasons with no games missed while putting up Consistent 100+ hit seasons and 100+ blocks seasons .
think of him like Lovejoy without the passion .
Alzners a guy who will always play hard he's just slow as hell for a speed based team .
he'd be best off on a team like MIN or DAL but honestly he's the type of Leader off ice i think NJD could use .
the guy's a consemate professional despite MTL signing him longterm then gutting their system for one that puts Alzner at a disadvantage.