Scratching the Radiminator, why?

After last year in the AHL, Merkley needs another year of seasoning with the Cuda. He is not ready. I would not be surprised if Pederson took over as 4C.

A concern that I have is having Merkley pair with Vlasic even with limited 3rd pairing minutes. You got a past his prime Pickles with an offensive defenseman without much NHL experience. Don't want to hang Hill out to dry.

I actually prefer to have Vlasic with another shutdown defenseman. All they do is shutdown and not expecting any offense generated. They kill minutes before the top 2 defensive pairs are rested and get back on the ice.

I watched nearly every 'cuda game last season. Merkley is unrefined and risky. But this is my thing:

For one, hes improved. I had three games last season where I really felt that he was an elite talents. 2/5 were at the very end of the season.
It's Merkley's D+4 Season, he should be making the league this year or his chances of ever becoming an NHL-talent are small. Especially for a first rounder.
Merkley can improve our bottom 3 NHL power play. We for some reason love rolling 2 dmen on one of the PP units, so this makes that reasonable (Sommer never gave Merkley PP1 time on the cuda which was so stupid, he was the best QB available).

*the Radimer

and it's to play our highly touted d prospect in his D+4 season, not a Simek diss

Might as well burn the Californian flag while the teams are at it

He should certainly be a call up this year but for a team that struggled mightily to keep the puck out of the net we need more defensively reliable dmen on the roster and that ain't Merkley. He's a liability on defense.