Edited Apr. 14 at 9:02 p.m.
Quoting: Horny4Hornqvist
Jesus Christ bro! Did you not see the look these are all wishful thinking part?
Respond to stuff less pompously.
Do I think they can actually trade Graves? Probably not. But you can’t say he’s an average 2LD. His first year here has been well below expectations, as many thought he would finally make our defense core solid again, eating up big minutes, putting up around 30-35 points, and shutting down the opponents top line, and he barely mustered 13 or so points and consistently gets individually outplayed by the opponent, at times has zero confidence with the puck. The Penguins are DESPERATE man. We can’t really afford to see if this year will be a coin flip for him. I do see a world with a trade to specifically Arizona working because of their need for contracted defenseman and insANE surplus of picks in that draft, so who knows? Could be pushed back to a 6th? Wishful thinking? Like I said? In the post?
For Karlsson I’ll keep it nice and short. His offense hasn’t fully been there. His defensive mistakes have been huge. I’m not gonna crucify him, mainly because there’s no point, he’s here for 3 more years, so we need to figure it out.
As for Monahan: also wishful thinking. Things HAVE to go south for him not to re-sign in Winnipeg. Things HAVE to go well for us to convince him to come here, especially on a 1-year contract which, in my lost draft of this, I wrote if we need to up the AAV a bit and stretch the years out more to get him, I don’t have a problem with that.
Craig Smith and Josh Brown signings aren’t too crucial for me, smith is a good plug 4th liner and I’m not completely sold on St Ivany slotting in, hence Josh Brown. But please enlighten me on any other young available 4th line RW’s for cheap and you can get back to me. 4th lines/bottom pairings don’t need youth bro. They need forecheckers, frustraters. we’re not going to find a ****ing 24-year-old PK wizard who can chip in 10-15-25.
Pettersson?? Have you watched any games at all? He is without a doubt a top DEFENSIVE defenseman, and many in the hockey world agree. Thats a bonehead take from you my guy. Next.
All in all, man, it’s just a forum post. Here’s a more chill response you could have put together instead:
“Could you explain your thinking on Graves (lmao, which I actually did if you read the post)? It’s tough to see that trade working out!
Don’t think Pettersson is a 1LD, but that’s just me. Monahan I don’t see happening, at the very least at that term.
Don’t you think the 4RW and 3RD positions could be filled by other younger players? Don’t enjoy smith or Brown at those price tags.”
Have a nice day dude!
just look at the things you are saying here.
You want to say Petterson is a top 10 defenseman but then turn around and say he's not a 1LD. Well I hate to break it to you there are 10 actual 1LDs in the league so he's not a top 10 defenseman.
He's a solid 2LD, that's what he is. Don't sit around over hyping what he actually is. I unlike you have actually watched games, which is why I can tell you, he's not a top 10 defenseman. Lets be clear, being a top defenseman has nothing to do with points, it means being able to shut it down in your own end while not being a burden in the Ozone.
As for Graves, "not meeting expectations"...who's??? Did you read your expectations? Shut down other teams top line, produce 30 poitns.... I mean pretty much sounds like you wanted someone to come in and well be your 1LD....well he's not. Never was going to be. Nor was that ever the expectation which you should know because that's a 4.5 mil per contract not one over 6-7 mil.
You're incredibly lofty expectations for a guy who was never going to meet them, and the whole organization knew that when they signed him, based off the dollar figure, tells us all why you can't actually appreciate his actual value.
In 5v5 play. He got 58.5% of his starts in the Dzone. With a PDO of 99.7 aka average goal tending meaning the numbers are real and not lofty because of the goalie.
He pulled an almost 49% Corsi and 50% FW. Those are decent number for someone getting 58% of his starts on D. While being a +1 meaning he's not bleeding goals.
Now consider who he's getting those starts in the Dzone with. A 4th line that is of 0 help other than maybe Acciari, for most of the year. Basically AHL level replacement level wingers on that 4th line.
A 3rd line with guys like Jeff Carter on it.
I mean really. They clearly sent him out there to shut other teams down. It's clear from the 5v5 numbers he didn't do a bad job of it.
The guy let in 37 goals in 70 games 5v5. Compare that to Letang who is considered a 1RD. 69 goals in 80 games. Or Karlson. 67 in 80 games. Or even Petterson 65 in 80 games.
I'm not even going to get into the rest because they are AHL level defenseman.
As much as you hate on Graves, he's the one guy on the team who actually did a decent job of preventing goals from going in his own net. Even when he was burdened with bad defensive partners, lines that offered little help, and mediocre goal tending.
You want the guy to be something he isn't. He's never going to be a 1LD. He knows that, the organization knows that. But that doesn't mean he's not a decent LD. Finding one with size who can play decently is a hard thing to do.
But here is you, like every other clueless pens fan trying to run the guy out of PIT because he's not a 1LD that you think is magically coming to PIT (or any other team for that matter) on a 4.5 MIL contract.
Here is a clue, getting Dumo on an absolute steal of a contract at 25 because he only had 2 years under his belt and was still growing into the role as a 1LD, doesn't mean that's how easy it is to find a 1LD and what they are paid.
So stop tearing down a guy who's really done his job as good as you can expect someone to do on an average 2LD contract. Because of all the defensemen on the team. He's the one guy out there who is not coughing up a ton of goals. Even though the more the year went along they had to work him more and more in his own zone because MP wasn't able and the 3rd pairing has sucked all year long.
Anyone who actually played hockey knows this looking at the guy. He's done his job at his level. He's never been the problem. Maybe focus on giving him actual help, like Dzone players who aren't 39 years old and AHL level 3rd pairing guys to start in the Dzone because Letang and EK are horrible defensively.
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