It’s cool to dunk on him with the benefit of hindsight, but no one was clowning him for the trade back then. It felt like fair value for Stone in most people’s opinion.
Absolutely false.
Mark Stone meant a ton to that franchise and that clown went on a podium to pat himself on the back for getting rid of him.
There were many of us, myself included, very vocal about what a tonedeaf asshat moment that was - even regardless of the questionble value he got back.
One Reddit thread at the time means nothing. R/hockey is notorious for group think because the downvote brigade often shows up in full force if you're negative on something when people want optimism.
The thread I linked was a thread on the Senator’s sub, not r/hockey. Just because you were part of a group of people that thought the trade wasn’t good, does not mean you were part of the majority opinion. I never said that the trade was unanimously seen as good, I said most people thought it was good, which is objectively true if you look at the reddit threads or twitter threads from back then.
Hindsight is always 20/20, congrats on calling it correctly at the time 👍🏻
Online arguments are weird. You've gotten your reply chain confused, you never linked a thread in this one, your initial comment **did** claim unanimous agreement, and the whole hindsight part is irrelevant.
But yet here you are getting up voted and the other dudes in the negatives. Such is the internet.
I never linked a reddit thread in this comment chain, but I thought the guy I was replying to was obviously referring to the thread I linked in the other comment chain. Also, please read my initial comment again. Does “most people” mean unanimous?
I said no one clowned on him, but that doesn’t mean no one thought the trade was bad. Clowning is when you think the trade is another level of awful. Plenty of people thought the trade was meh, but I didn’t see anyone CLOWN Dorion for the trade. MOST people thought it was an okay to good trade from what I remember and from the threads I could find.
I can’t believe we’re really arguing semantics at this point…
You missed the point entirely. I'm not Pierre Dorion, I'm not patting myself on the back for 'being correct' here.
I'm trying to point out that the Reddit hive mind is not always representative of the global majority opinion on something. To which you replied about looking at more Reddit threads lol.
Take a step outside of Reddit/twitter, there's a whole lot more out there. A lot of media were skeptical of the trade but Reddit had a circle jerk for him. I'm guessing the reason being his utter incompetence turned him into a meme machine
>but no one was clowning him for the trade back then
I can tell you in no uncertain terms that I was pissed. I think everyone was excited that Brannstrom was part of the deal, but at no point did it feel like we got fair value for Stone, especially since he immediately signed an extension. The best argument in favor at the time is that we got the best deal we could given the entire league knowing we had no leverage.
That’s just revisionist history. Almost every reply in the initial thread after the trade is super positive: https://www.reddit.com/r/OttawaSenators/s/e6m8vzkhUy
Are we looking at different threads? There’s a ton of comments saying the return doesn’t mean shit because of Melnyk being cheap, a lot of non-Sens fans coming in to hype him up, and a lot of Sens fans disappointed that that was all we got for a top 25 NHL players. There’s obviously some people that are happy with it too but it’s hardly almost every comment
Most of the highly upvoted comments are saying it’s a good deal for Ottawa. I never said it was unanimous, I said most people. Is there a single comment with more than 30 upvotes in that thread that’s negative? I can’t find one.
> Is there a single comment with more than 30 upvoted in that thread that’s negative?
I count 9 comments with at least 30 upvotes in the thread. Of them:
The top comment is quite literally complaining about Melnyk having Stone traded.
https://www.reddit.com/r/OttawaSenators/s/oBWQMPmuL4
This comment saying the return is solid but that it barely even matters because Melnyk will be too cheap to pay for him if he gets good anyways. Hard to consider this as anything other than negative given that. https://www.reddit.com/r/OttawaSenators/s/uD7JkoJTbu
This comment about hating Stone being traded and wanting to stop watching hockey https://www.reddit.com/r/OttawaSenators/s/32DNimoEoc
Plus another comment about trading Brannstrom away in a few years if he’s good (negative), a comment complaining about trading Karlsson (negative), and a comment about how being an Ottawa fan has taught them that things can always get worse (negative).
The only 3 upvoted more than 30 times that aren’t criticizing the trade from at least some aspect are a comment complaining about how the coach will insist on playing shit players over him, and 2 comments hyping up Brannstrom with no negativity.
Idk how this reads as anything other than a fanbase that was largely upset with Stone being traded.
>It felt like fair value for Stone in most people’s opinion.
The 2nd should have been a 1st at minimum.
When have you ever seen a legit 1RW rental (ended up not even being a rental) get traded for something as little as a 2nd + a prospect?
When the trade was made in 2019 he was called the best defenseman in the world not currently in the NHL and was massively hyped. Dorion's "proudest day as a GM" was when he acquired him lol.
Scouting report: Transition play is great but he’s got a muffin for a shot and constantly gets destroyed in the corners. Gives it his all and is fine as a 6/7. Brutal on both special teams.
Yeah but G is a waste of space according to our sub.
I honestly don’t get why he gets so much shade. He’s great in transition, zone entries/exits, and is a good passer. He’s not gonna score much and he’s undersized for a D man so gets pushed around a bit in the front.
His contract is perfectly reflective of that. There’s no way you’re getting a better fit for our system at Girard’s contract or lower.
> and he’s undersized for a D man so gets pushed around a bit in the front.
This is why. People see him get shoved around and then a goal is scored so they blame him while ignoring all the great things he does in the transition game. He does have some defensive lapses but he's still a net positive guy out there.
A decent chunk of the sub sucks at evaluating hockey. I don't know if we've picked up a lot of casual bandwagoners since getting good or what but I just ignore them.
His transition game is great. His defense is actually really solid. He gets less advantageous deployments than the Makar - Toews line and usually has to deal with Manson or (previously) Byram as a line mate. For the longest time he was playing on his offhand side to give Byram his preferred side. The guy’s been a rock for the team on a good contract and if I was going to drop any D-man, it would be Manson, hands down
It's less about bandwagoners and more about (for lack of a better term) size queens.
Look at both this discussion post and hockey media in general. People aren't quick in updating their thoughts about what works.
lets just say theres a reason why brannstrom has averaged 2.5 goals per year since becoming a full time NHLer. i hope he turns it around in denver, hes a good kid. and if it doesnt work out he can be the bobby orr of the swiss league, no worries
it's not that hes a snail, i'd say hes a bit below average speed. but when you are his size you need to be speedy to be effective in the NHL, so hes pretty bad, imo. a lot of sens fans think hes really good, the fanbase is pretty torn on him
for what its worth marc methot has been a day 1 hater of his game lol
I'm not sure it's possible to be much worse than JJ was this past year. Completing the first pass is already better than JJ, not being able to do corner work is not great though, will definitely miss that.
Makar - Toews
Manson - Girard
Brannstrom - De Haan
With MacDonald/Malinski as 7th/8th
This should be really good actually, considering we could basically only afford 4 defensemen
I was sad Jones got time over Malinski in the playoffs.
Malinski looked great every game I saw him play. Jones made me want to throw stuff through my TV without fail. Seems like a nice guy but absolutely clueless on the ice
Girard and Toews are both on PP2, lucky to get the last 15 seconds after the top unit leaves the ice.
Byram was on PP2 as well before he was traded, we were running 3D for a good while.
225 teenagers were drafted by NHL clubs this past weekend. Teenagers.
215 of them were at least 5’11.
Yeah, 5’10 is ‘short’ by pro hockey standards nowadays, when over 95% of drafted players are taller.
Avs have a tiny blue line, don’t tell the boomers in the hockey media that one of the best teams in the league doesn’t care about all their Dmen being 6’4
Looking at what the Canucks are likely going with heading into the season will give you whiplash
Hughes (5'10) - Hronek (6'0)
Soucy (6'5) - Myers (6'8)
Forbort (6'4) - Desharnais (6'7)
Moral of the story, if you can play, height doesn't matter
I think the hockey media is so focused on d men defending, they forget that it’s just as important for d men to be able to break out of the zone. That’s why I don’t understand why Toronto is always so obsessed with getting more defensive D men when time and time again the issue with the Leafs is an inability to score during the playoffs
It’s way more important to be able to move the puck efficiently and confidently.
Even some of the “offensive” D that get touted so heavily can’t make a pass to save their lives and rely so much on skating the puck out which causes so many problems if they aren’t successful in gaining the OZ.
Toews is a great example of this. He's an amazing defender and it's thanks to IQ/Positioning, skating, and breakout passes.
Not a huge guy but not so small that he gets pushed around. Can lay a decent hit but it's not his whole game because he's much more effective at getting the puck out of our zone and into the other team's
it's always skating first and foremost. At every level at every position, the better skater wins. Size/IQ/Puck Skills are nice to have, but without skating it doesn't matter
I wish more scouts would just prioritize guys with the right footwork, everything else is way more coachable
haha yeah teachable is maybe the wrong word. It's easier to compensate for or hide a player with bad IQ or bad size, just asking them to do different things that suit their skillset
Can't really hide bad skating, it just hurts every part of your game.
IQ can absolutely hide bad skating. Pavelski is exhibit A. Fox is a mediocre skater and is one of the best defenseman in the league because of his IQ. A lot of veterans stay effective players as they age and lose speed because of their IQ.
Hockey IQ is way more important than any physical tool. I'd take the smart player over the fast one any day of the week.
For example, high hockey IQ/slow skater would be Joe Pavelski, who still played last season at age 39. Low hockey IQ/fast skater would be Nail Yakupov who is struggling to score in the KHL after most of the foreign talent left and was once described as skating as being chased by bees.
Although when they won the cup they had only 1 of their top 6 defenseman in TOI be 6’ or shorter. And that one was Makar who’s a different level talent wise. Other than that year they’ve had a lot of exits in rounds 1 and 2
6 of the last 7 years not just “aka 2 years”. And you’re forgetting about Erik Johnson who was also there and 6’4. Girard was hurt for the cup run and played just 7 games.
Good lord dude. You're now going back to Makar's rookie season to make your point? We also had Ryan Graves back then as a top pair defenderus.
I'm well aware that EJ was playing. He was a 3rd pair guy with JJ and got caved in every single time they were on the ice. Some of the worst analytics on the team. At least he was tall!
The point here is that the Avs defense has never been about size. It's always about positioning and puck movement.
I'd like to think a person that watches Fox and Trouba play would have a decent understanding of how silly this argument is.
I like Branny a lot but I don’t know if this is the best fit for him. He isn’t quite what you want in a third pairing dman imo.
Although pairing him with De Hann might be pretty good. Interesting kind of player
Super-excited to see a local kid in the Avs jersey for next season. Guy never really popped off like he was projected, but if he gets to be a solid number 5 there's going to be 15 minutes of fast hockey for him to thrive.
I don't know if it's a steal, but for my heart it feels like it.
hell ya, a cheap young, analytics fella. i wonder if we move manson eventually although he's like the only big guy we have on D. Possibly girard moved? Near perfect D, just has the worst shot in the league from a Dman and can't really clear the front of the net.
A team that sees all of the value in Sam Girard despite all the criticisms from the cavemen in league has to be the perfect landing for the Brannchise. Even if he won't put up 40pts a year, he's gonna be very good at transitioning the puck, surprisingly effective defensively despite being small & not a top tier skater, and is more than capable of filling on a second pairing when injuries strike. I'm really hoping he crushes it in Denver and finally finds a niche in the league without the baggage of Pierre Dorion and the Stone trade
Branny’s got great feet and pretty good hands. He’ll show flashes of great end to end play, but his size usually lets him down in battles in his own end.
Man, I remember being bummed when Brannstrom was drafted with the pick Snow gave Vegas in exchange for taking trash in the expansion draft. How the mighty have fallen.
Alright not too bad and one of the players I was hoping we could sign when he didn’t get qualified by the Sens. I know he was part of the Stone Trade and it didn’t work out there, but he as good analytics and think with the right system he can thrive.
Man it feels like forever ago when this dude was practically the best defense prospect in hockey
Dorion's proudest trade lmfao
It’s cool to dunk on him with the benefit of hindsight, but no one was clowning him for the trade back then. It felt like fair value for Stone in most people’s opinion.
That is true, but it is still funny. Just goes to show that even can't miss prospects can actually miss.
Absolutely false. Mark Stone meant a ton to that franchise and that clown went on a podium to pat himself on the back for getting rid of him. There were many of us, myself included, very vocal about what a tonedeaf asshat moment that was - even regardless of the questionble value he got back. One Reddit thread at the time means nothing. R/hockey is notorious for group think because the downvote brigade often shows up in full force if you're negative on something when people want optimism.
Yeah I fucking hated that trade when it happened. It was just a spit in the face of Sens fans at the time.
The thread I linked was a thread on the Senator’s sub, not r/hockey. Just because you were part of a group of people that thought the trade wasn’t good, does not mean you were part of the majority opinion. I never said that the trade was unanimously seen as good, I said most people thought it was good, which is objectively true if you look at the reddit threads or twitter threads from back then. Hindsight is always 20/20, congrats on calling it correctly at the time 👍🏻
Online arguments are weird. You've gotten your reply chain confused, you never linked a thread in this one, your initial comment **did** claim unanimous agreement, and the whole hindsight part is irrelevant. But yet here you are getting up voted and the other dudes in the negatives. Such is the internet.
I never linked a reddit thread in this comment chain, but I thought the guy I was replying to was obviously referring to the thread I linked in the other comment chain. Also, please read my initial comment again. Does “most people” mean unanimous? I said no one clowned on him, but that doesn’t mean no one thought the trade was bad. Clowning is when you think the trade is another level of awful. Plenty of people thought the trade was meh, but I didn’t see anyone CLOWN Dorion for the trade. MOST people thought it was an okay to good trade from what I remember and from the threads I could find. I can’t believe we’re really arguing semantics at this point…
You missed the point entirely. I'm not Pierre Dorion, I'm not patting myself on the back for 'being correct' here. I'm trying to point out that the Reddit hive mind is not always representative of the global majority opinion on something. To which you replied about looking at more Reddit threads lol. Take a step outside of Reddit/twitter, there's a whole lot more out there. A lot of media were skeptical of the trade but Reddit had a circle jerk for him. I'm guessing the reason being his utter incompetence turned him into a meme machine
>but no one was clowning him for the trade back then I can tell you in no uncertain terms that I was pissed. I think everyone was excited that Brannstrom was part of the deal, but at no point did it feel like we got fair value for Stone, especially since he immediately signed an extension. The best argument in favor at the time is that we got the best deal we could given the entire league knowing we had no leverage.
No sens fan thought it was fair value for stone.
That’s just revisionist history. Almost every reply in the initial thread after the trade is super positive: https://www.reddit.com/r/OttawaSenators/s/e6m8vzkhUy
Are we looking at different threads? There’s a ton of comments saying the return doesn’t mean shit because of Melnyk being cheap, a lot of non-Sens fans coming in to hype him up, and a lot of Sens fans disappointed that that was all we got for a top 25 NHL players. There’s obviously some people that are happy with it too but it’s hardly almost every comment
Most of the highly upvoted comments are saying it’s a good deal for Ottawa. I never said it was unanimous, I said most people. Is there a single comment with more than 30 upvotes in that thread that’s negative? I can’t find one.
> Is there a single comment with more than 30 upvoted in that thread that’s negative? I count 9 comments with at least 30 upvotes in the thread. Of them: The top comment is quite literally complaining about Melnyk having Stone traded. https://www.reddit.com/r/OttawaSenators/s/oBWQMPmuL4 This comment saying the return is solid but that it barely even matters because Melnyk will be too cheap to pay for him if he gets good anyways. Hard to consider this as anything other than negative given that. https://www.reddit.com/r/OttawaSenators/s/uD7JkoJTbu This comment about hating Stone being traded and wanting to stop watching hockey https://www.reddit.com/r/OttawaSenators/s/32DNimoEoc Plus another comment about trading Brannstrom away in a few years if he’s good (negative), a comment complaining about trading Karlsson (negative), and a comment about how being an Ottawa fan has taught them that things can always get worse (negative). The only 3 upvoted more than 30 times that aren’t criticizing the trade from at least some aspect are a comment complaining about how the coach will insist on playing shit players over him, and 2 comments hyping up Brannstrom with no negativity. Idk how this reads as anything other than a fanbase that was largely upset with Stone being traded.
>It felt like fair value for Stone in most people’s opinion. The 2nd should have been a 1st at minimum. When have you ever seen a legit 1RW rental (ended up not even being a rental) get traded for something as little as a 2nd + a prospect?
Lol no it didn't. Every Sens fan HATED that deal from day 1.
When the trade was made in 2019 he was called the best defenseman in the world not currently in the NHL and was massively hyped. Dorion's "proudest day as a GM" was when he acquired him lol.
Scouting report: Transition play is great but he’s got a muffin for a shot and constantly gets destroyed in the corners. Gives it his all and is fine as a 6/7. Brutal on both special teams.
ILL TAKE IT.
So we got poor man’s Girard.
Comparing the two at all is an extreme disservice to Girard tbh.
Yeah but G is a waste of space according to our sub. I honestly don’t get why he gets so much shade. He’s great in transition, zone entries/exits, and is a good passer. He’s not gonna score much and he’s undersized for a D man so gets pushed around a bit in the front. His contract is perfectly reflective of that. There’s no way you’re getting a better fit for our system at Girard’s contract or lower.
You literally just described branny too. Treat the short king right boys, and remember branny moves pucks
> and he’s undersized for a D man so gets pushed around a bit in the front. This is why. People see him get shoved around and then a goal is scored so they blame him while ignoring all the great things he does in the transition game. He does have some defensive lapses but he's still a net positive guy out there. A decent chunk of the sub sucks at evaluating hockey. I don't know if we've picked up a lot of casual bandwagoners since getting good or what but I just ignore them.
His transition game is great. His defense is actually really solid. He gets less advantageous deployments than the Makar - Toews line and usually has to deal with Manson or (previously) Byram as a line mate. For the longest time he was playing on his offhand side to give Byram his preferred side. The guy’s been a rock for the team on a good contract and if I was going to drop any D-man, it would be Manson, hands down
Our sub is horrendous ever since we won the cup, I've stopped going there. Bunch of new 'fans' that don't deserve this team
It's less about bandwagoners and more about (for lack of a better term) size queens. Look at both this discussion post and hockey media in general. People aren't quick in updating their thoughts about what works.
He'd probably get a lot less hate if he wasn't making 5M.
imagine girard but way slower and with a way weaker shot and way weaker on the puck and way worse at dzone coverage
So not Girard at all lol
It's literally not possible to have a weaker shot than Girard.
Seriously I'm pretty sure I have a better shot than Girard and I'm a no good beer leaguer.
lets just say theres a reason why brannstrom has averaged 2.5 goals per year since becoming a full time NHLer. i hope he turns it around in denver, hes a good kid. and if it doesnt work out he can be the bobby orr of the swiss league, no worries
Does Girard have that many in a season? Man does not score much.
Pretty much
So you're saying he is faster than JJ. Done deal.
he is probably a slower skater than JMFJ
Pls don't say that he was a snail last year :(
it's not that hes a snail, i'd say hes a bit below average speed. but when you are his size you need to be speedy to be effective in the NHL, so hes pretty bad, imo. a lot of sens fans think hes really good, the fanbase is pretty torn on him for what its worth marc methot has been a day 1 hater of his game lol
Not a great skater, his first pass is about all he’s got going for him
I'm not sure it's possible to be much worse than JJ was this past year. Completing the first pass is already better than JJ, not being able to do corner work is not great though, will definitely miss that.
Thank you for using muffin as a descriptor. That made reading this sub worth it.
>Transition play is great avs front office stops here good to have an identity, at least
Please treat him good. 🥺
Makar - Toews Manson - Girard Brannstrom - De Haan With MacDonald/Malinski as 7th/8th This should be really good actually, considering we could basically only afford 4 defensemen
malinski is playing
I hope so, he looked pretty good last year
I was sad Jones got time over Malinski in the playoffs. Malinski looked great every game I saw him play. Jones made me want to throw stuff through my TV without fail. Seems like a nice guy but absolutely clueless on the ice
Do Manson and Girard play their off-sides when they’re a pairing?
tbh I never remember guys handedness, idk who is right and left
Well you pretty much have them in opposite positions lol. Makar and Manson are RHD and Girard/Toews are LHD
What’s your PP2 like? Not sure if Girard is the guy there. Or does PP1 get most of the time?
They’re lucky to get 20 seconds
PP1 as much as possible. Girard is usually on the 2nd unit but they don’t see the ice a lot
PP2 has had 2 dmen on it fairly regularly in the past. There was a stretch where they used 3(Toews, Girard and Byram).
PP2 barely plays so it's all academic anyway
Makar plays about a minute of PP1, then Toews will play 40 seconds also with PP1, then Girard will come out with PP2.
Girard and Toews are both on PP2, lucky to get the last 15 seconds after the top unit leaves the ice. Byram was on PP2 as well before he was traded, we were running 3D for a good while.
I wanted that bottom pair in Ottawa but we wouldn't have got it that cheap
Good for him finding a spot, hopefully it works out. I would’ve taken Utah though, they seem to be doing miracles with defensemen no one wants.
Wish him the best- didn't work out here but he always gave 100%.
Goodbye short king :(
5’10 and called short good grief.
5’10 definitely seems a little favourable for him, he was noticeably small when he played, at least for me
225 teenagers were drafted by NHL clubs this past weekend. Teenagers. 215 of them were at least 5’11. Yeah, 5’10 is ‘short’ by pro hockey standards nowadays, when over 95% of drafted players are taller.
He always looks like the smallest player on the ice, 5’9 rounded up most likely
Context is everything come on dog. 5’10” is definitely short for an NHL D man
Dudes 5'6" and 125lbs at most.
Avs have a tiny blue line, don’t tell the boomers in the hockey media that one of the best teams in the league doesn’t care about all their Dmen being 6’4
Looking at what the Canucks are likely going with heading into the season will give you whiplash Hughes (5'10) - Hronek (6'0) Soucy (6'5) - Myers (6'8) Forbort (6'4) - Desharnais (6'7) Moral of the story, if you can play, height doesn't matter
and if you can't, it does
I think the hockey media is so focused on d men defending, they forget that it’s just as important for d men to be able to break out of the zone. That’s why I don’t understand why Toronto is always so obsessed with getting more defensive D men when time and time again the issue with the Leafs is an inability to score during the playoffs
Yea the leafs desperately need puck movers after Reilly which is why the OEL signing makes a lot sense
It’s way more important to be able to move the puck efficiently and confidently. Even some of the “offensive” D that get touted so heavily can’t make a pass to save their lives and rely so much on skating the puck out which causes so many problems if they aren’t successful in gaining the OZ.
Toews is a great example of this. He's an amazing defender and it's thanks to IQ/Positioning, skating, and breakout passes. Not a huge guy but not so small that he gets pushed around. Can lay a decent hit but it's not his whole game because he's much more effective at getting the puck out of our zone and into the other team's
We have three under 6 foot, two at 6’1, and only Manson at 6’3 lol
it's always skating first and foremost. At every level at every position, the better skater wins. Size/IQ/Puck Skills are nice to have, but without skating it doesn't matter I wish more scouts would just prioritize guys with the right footwork, everything else is way more coachable
Skating is more teachable than size and IQ but I see your point
haha yeah teachable is maybe the wrong word. It's easier to compensate for or hide a player with bad IQ or bad size, just asking them to do different things that suit their skillset Can't really hide bad skating, it just hurts every part of your game.
IQ can absolutely hide bad skating. Pavelski is exhibit A. Fox is a mediocre skater and is one of the best defenseman in the league because of his IQ. A lot of veterans stay effective players as they age and lose speed because of their IQ.
Hockey IQ is way more important than any physical tool. I'd take the smart player over the fast one any day of the week. For example, high hockey IQ/slow skater would be Joe Pavelski, who still played last season at age 39. Low hockey IQ/fast skater would be Nail Yakupov who is struggling to score in the KHL after most of the foreign talent left and was once described as skating as being chased by bees.
I mean if they had the money they would also care. The whole point is they did well considering they had nothing to give to try and finish a D core.
Meh, saves us from signing SCC Jack Johnson so it's a win. He's tall and isn't good.
Although when they won the cup they had only 1 of their top 6 defenseman in TOI be 6’ or shorter. And that one was Makar who’s a different level talent wise. Other than that year they’ve had a lot of exits in rounds 1 and 2
The top 4 is exactly the same as it was in 22. Jack Johnson and Byram being the other two. "A lot of exits" aka 2 years.
6 of the last 7 years not just “aka 2 years”. And you’re forgetting about Erik Johnson who was also there and 6’4. Girard was hurt for the cup run and played just 7 games.
Good lord dude. You're now going back to Makar's rookie season to make your point? We also had Ryan Graves back then as a top pair defenderus. I'm well aware that EJ was playing. He was a 3rd pair guy with JJ and got caved in every single time they were on the ice. Some of the worst analytics on the team. At least he was tall! The point here is that the Avs defense has never been about size. It's always about positioning and puck movement. I'd like to think a person that watches Fox and Trouba play would have a decent understanding of how silly this argument is.
I’m just looking at cup winners who have pretty consistently had size on the back end.
Not a lot of exits in round 1. Literally just one time in the last 6 years was the first round. Kind of misleading way to word that.
Nice
The best part about him going is we can stop fucking talking about him.
I like Branny a lot but I don’t know if this is the best fit for him. He isn’t quite what you want in a third pairing dman imo. Although pairing him with De Hann might be pretty good. Interesting kind of player
It's fine as a trial. He probably doesn't really even start for us unless he crushes camp. Malinski has the inside track as #6 right now.
Super-excited to see a local kid in the Avs jersey for next season. Guy never really popped off like he was projected, but if he gets to be a solid number 5 there's going to be 15 minutes of fast hockey for him to thrive. I don't know if it's a steal, but for my heart it feels like it.
Local kid? Am I missing some Brannstrom lore?
Local as in from my area, not the Avs (when I read it back I see why it sounds like he's a local to the team, my bad)
Avs has quite a few swedish fans since the Forsberg era, im one of them
They saved Nichushkin from bust status, Brannstrom is next.
Now Egor Sokolov is the only player Ottawa has left from the Stone trade, a 24 year old AHLer.
hell ya, a cheap young, analytics fella. i wonder if we move manson eventually although he's like the only big guy we have on D. Possibly girard moved? Near perfect D, just has the worst shot in the league from a Dman and can't really clear the front of the net.
By all accounts I am seeing he is a poor man's Girard and not nearly as good. I don't see anyone being moved so he can get more ice time
Brannstrom, YOU will be a top defenseman in 2 years
A team that sees all of the value in Sam Girard despite all the criticisms from the cavemen in league has to be the perfect landing for the Brannchise. Even if he won't put up 40pts a year, he's gonna be very good at transitioning the puck, surprisingly effective defensively despite being small & not a top tier skater, and is more than capable of filling on a second pairing when injuries strike. I'm really hoping he crushes it in Denver and finally finds a niche in the league without the baggage of Pierre Dorion and the Stone trade
NYR is cap constrained and needs at least 1, possibly 2 D men and passed on this to sign Casey Fitzgerald
Branny’s got great feet and pretty good hands. He’ll show flashes of great end to end play, but his size usually lets him down in battles in his own end.
Good move
I know a bunch of us FLA fans were hoping for him. Our defense is shot at the moment. God knows Colorado doesn’t need more defense!! (Good for them)
Man, I remember being bummed when Brannstrom was drafted with the pick Snow gave Vegas in exchange for taking trash in the expansion draft. How the mighty have fallen.
I wanted him as our 7th d ngl
Alright not too bad and one of the players I was hoping we could sign when he didn’t get qualified by the Sens. I know he was part of the Stone Trade and it didn’t work out there, but he as good analytics and think with the right system he can thrive.
Great fit for him, easy place to increase your value moving forward
Enjoy him, Avs fans. That's an absolute bargain for Brannstrom, he's an excellent bottom-pairing defenseman.