Quoting: Riley816
What part is exaggerating?? He's a 3rd pairing dman that has no idea how to play defense...
Quoting: Mike_Gartner
So he isn’t a 3rd pairing Dman?
If he is better than 3rd pairing, he hasn’t shown it in the past 5 years...
I would be exaggerating if I said he was the worst in the league, I just said he sucks.
I think what's more important is to define a 3rd pair dman then? Because Victor Mete is Montreal's 1st pair dman by some people's logic simply because he plays alongside Weber but somehow manages only 17 mins a night on average. There is nothing to suggest he is a 3rd pair dman, in fact there is more evidence to show he is the contrary. You just said "I don't like him and he sucks" and that's your argument.
Regardless of that fact though, find any 3rd pair dman in the league to have the same numbers Risto has. That's ok I'll wait..........
Four 40+ point seasons in a row.
Averaged over 25 mins a game throughout those 4 seasons..
Plays PK, Plays PP, can play 3v3 OT.
Makes only 5.5M a year for RHD.
Is only 24 mind you. Just entered his prime.....
This exaggeration has to stop! Is he the best ******* dman in the league? No. Is he going to win the Norris? No. You know what? Neither has Ekman-Larsson and he is one of the better dman in the league.
Buffalo as a team sucks balls. There is a reason they finish near last every year. Playing a lot of minutes for a bad team is going to show your blemishes more. That's the same for any player. Erik Karlsson two years ago in Ottawa was getting lit up every night too. That's what happens when your on a bad team. Can't judge a player solely on the time he played on a bad team. What happens if Risto was traded to Nashville and played on their top 4 alongside Ekholm or Josi? He'd be a -40 while everyone else is +40? Puh-leese.
You need to actually watch the player and project how they'd look if they didn't have a siv for a goaltender all these years and generally overall a lacklustre team surrounding him. Ristolainen has all the tools to be a solid top 4 dman. In many cases a lesser top pairing dman. He's simply not good enough to do it on his own on a bad team. News flash, neither is 99% of NHL dman.
So yes, saying he sucks and that he is a 3rd pairing dman, is
EXAGGERATION. He doesn't suck and he would easily be a few teams top 4 RHD. Players that suck don't play 25 mins a night. Its actually the contrary. If it was one coach playing him that much, fine but he's had multiple coaches now and they all played him ahead of every other Buffalo dman. That's not a fluke.
Disclaimer: I mentioned above I don't think Nashville should make this trade either but the overexaggeration of how Risto "sucks" is unneeded.