Risto is a big guy with a physical presence. Plus he has a good shot. I don't know if Philly plans to re-sign him or not. I don't know when Justin Holl became Nick Lidstrom.

Haha don’t think any of us are calling Holl Lidstrom. But he’s a solid 4-5 guy. He eats up a lot of minutes each night going against top lines. Also plays valuable PK time. Makes some mistakes here and there. But he’s not Barrie or Gardiner.

It's so weird. It's like Leafs Nation is split over Holl. Half say he's a good top 4 Defenseman while the other half says he's horrible and shouldn't even be playing in the NHL.

Dermott is better than risto

Everyone here is better than Jared of London. Hey wannabe know it all know nothing. Have the guts to post your own CFACGM roster once in awhile. I didn't think so. Keep hiding. Clown. 🤡

I love that the take away from this is always 'pfft holl, you think he's amazing" and not that risto is literally one of the worst defenders in the league.
He is 'physical' in the sense that he hunts for hits and takes himself out of play constantly and he has a good shot in that it is hard but he has zero ability to use it properly and blasts it into shin pads like he's angry tyson barrie

Its cute how you think about me but are too shy to say hi

Is there anybody in the NHL better than Holl and Dermott to you?
Risto is better than both and would be the 4th D on the Leafs

there are lots, the issue is that people keep trading them for the same 3 worse guys over and over and over again.
and no, Risto is not better than either. he is one of the worst defenders in the league.

Dermott - Healthy scratch
Holl - Healthy scratch.

Risto - not

Watch other teams.

lol, when has Holl been a healthy scratch?
And just because a bad player is over used doesnt mean he is good. Risto is awful, watch him yourself. read any stats on him, he is absolutely brutal in every way

Holl was a healthy scratch for like 5 games straight. You obviously don’t follow the game other than just looking at numbers.

ah yes, i forgot about a 5 game stretch where Holl was also coming off a pretty bad illness (which you forgot about naturally) but sure. Risto playing and being terrible for years and years and years is totaly better than that!
you should watch the games, you'd know that if you looked at anything but games played

That’s because Leaf fans have a 50:50 split in intelligence. There’s 50% of the fans that watch more than stat sheets, understand there is more to the game than analytics, and have actually played hockey before themselves and know the differences between positions. But unfortunately there is the other half. Who really love to post on this site lol.

I’m a big believer in minutes played for defensemen. If you’re playing night in night out against top lines this shows that the coach trusts you. Risto had years playing 25 mins a night plus in Buffalo. Not his fault the rest of his team was awful. Holl plays big minutes for the leafs. He’s worth keeping.
Dermott does not. He’s had opportunities, but makes Gardiner like decisions. He is no more than a 6/7 dman. But he is still young as far as defensemen go. He is best suited for a new opportunity.

minutes played is one of the worst ways to judge a player. Saying that a coach trusts you has no meaning on if you are a good player. Lots and lots of terrible players get lots of minutes because of coaches who arnt good at their job, or they are on a bad team etc etc etc.
If you are on the ice a lot and your results are terrible, then you are an even bigger part of the problem of the tea being awful than if you got less minutes. Guys like Risto and Chariot are massive factors why their teams are so abysmal defensivly

i agree with you. its almost like when a team is doing bad players tend to not do their best either

i dont know if that goes through or not

he has looked a lot better these last few games, if he gets a more sheltered roll on the bottom pair he will just be better

no. no hes not

yes, yes he is.

even if he did look 'better' the past few games, that is meaningless against over 580 other games, and saying he'd be a good sheltered bottom pairing guy isnt a good thing for someone who makes 5.4 million dollars

im talking about holl

Holl has looked like a legit number 4 the past month, which makes sense considering he's finally over the illness that made him lose like 20lbs, an injury and covid stuff.

How in the world is minutes played a bad way to judge? Lol. Look at the top 50 players for time on ice. I challenge you to name one that is not a good player.

i just told you why it's a bad reason to judge. Ice time means nothing but the fact that they were on the ice. Lots of good players get icetime, but when you say a guy is good just because he plays a lot you are just ignoring how they perform in those minutes.
as far as the top 50 players, number 3 is Brent Burns, who is basically just tall tyson barrie, Ben chariot who is very very very bad is 32nd.
so I'll say it again, ice time only matters with how good you play in those minutes. Brett Lebda was 2nd in ice time for the leafs one year, Joey crabb was up there in icetime for forwards, etc etc etc.