Confirmed with Link: Derrick Pouliot's here because reasons. Part 1. (#859)

[rune74]

I think he has actually been fine as a third pairing defender. A 4th round pick for that can't be looked as a terrible trade, I mean seriously you get a player that can play in the NHL and call losing a 4th round pick terrible is questionable at best.

The announcers last night on the radio where saying quite a few good things about him.

He definitely will have an uphill battle here for reasons.

 

[MS]

I think he has actually been fine as a third pairing defender. A 4th round pick for that can't be looked as a terrible trade, I mean seriously you get a player that can play in the NHL and call losing a 4th round pick terrible is questionable at best.

The announcers last night on the radio where saying quite a few good things about him.

He definitely will have an uphill battle here for reasons.

He's being sheltered beyond belief and still not looking good. If you called up Evan McEneny and gave him 71% offensive zone starts in 12-13 super-sheltered ES minutes, he'd look like an OK 3rd pairing defender, too.

If the radio guys were saying good things about him last night, I seriously question their judgement. He was getting caught out of position on almost every shift, had multiple ugly turnovers in his own zone, and did nothing of note offensively.

This guy is supposed to be a skill defender. Have you seen one play in 5 games that directly created a quality scoring chance or made you go, 'woah, this guy actually has some skill'? Like, I don't think Jordan Subban is an NHL player right now, but I guarantee you he'd have done one or two things most nights that popped offensively.

What I see from Pouliot right now is a slow player who is fumbly with the puck and can't compete defensively. It's not a good combination.

 

[DL44]

He's being sheltered beyond belief and still not looking good. If you called up Evan McEneny and gave him 71% offensive zone starts in 12-13 super-sheltered ES minutes, he'd look like an OK 3rd pairing defender, too.

If the radio guys were saying good things about him last night, I seriously question their judgement. He was getting caught out of position on almost every shift, had multiple ugly turnovers in his own zone, and did nothing of note offensively.

This guy is supposed to be a skill defender. Have you seen one play in 5 games that directly created a quality scoring chance or made you go, 'woah, this guy actually has some skill'? Like, I don't think Jordan Subban is an NHL player right now, but I guarantee you he'd have done one or two things most nights that popped offensively.

What I see from Pouliot right now is a slow player who is fumbly with the puck and can't compete defensively. It's not a good combination.

I think you are being waaay too hard on the kid.
In the last couple of games I haven't seen the consistent red flag issues with his play you have.
I've liked his decision making overall in terms of when choosing to jump up into the play to become an outlet...
I haven't seen these multiple ugly turnovers... Thought he's held his own.
I haven't come away from a game and been like - 'Pouliot was a problem.'

His play has warranted his ice time... I don't think his play has given the coach pause to continue rotating him in there..

Just give him time now.. see if he can become more of difference maker as he settles in with the whole new coach/system/teammate/partner thing...

 

[absolute garbage]

I can't get over how non-dynamic he looks on the ice. He's 23, but he looks like one of those 40+ year old beer leaguers who are starting to lose their battle against carbs and gravity.

4th year pro too, so have to assume this is just who he is? Rather than just one Virtanen-like out of shape summer. Such an uninspiring player. Makes total sense for Benning to target this guy.

 

[PG Canuck]

*All the exact flaws the Pens had issues with, which were a big reason he never made it there, are now showing here (shocker)*

"You're being too hard on the kid"

Nice.

Pouliot had multiple bad coverage plays, multiple bad giveaways/decisions in last nights game alone. Great, he looks decent in the offensive zone, but unfortunately he's a defenseman.

 

[MS]

I think you are being waaay too hard on the kid.
In the last couple of games I haven't seen the consistent red flag issues with his play you have.
I've liked his decision making overall in terms of when choosing to jump up into the play to become an outlet...
I haven't seen these multiple ugly turnovers... Thought he's held his own.
I haven't come away from a game and been like - 'Pouliot was a problem.'

His play has warranted his ice time... I don't think his play has given the coach pause to continue rotating him in there..

Just give him time now.. see if he can become more of difference maker as he settles in with the whole new coach/system/teammate/partner thing...

Could not disagree more.

He was awful last night. I'm trying to watch him pretty closely and there were basic positional errors and blatant turnovers on almost every shift. And nothing going the other way to compensate.

You can take pretty much any OK AHL defender and give him minutes that soft, and he'll do OK. As McEneny did last year.

I can't get over how non-dynamic he looks on the ice. He's 23, but he looks like one of those 40+ year old beer leaguers who are starting to lose their battle against carbs and gravity.

4th year pro too, so have to assume this is just who he is? Rather than just one Virtanen-like out of shape summer. Such an uninspiring player. Makes total sense for Benning to target this guy.

Yeah, exactly.

This guy's calling card is as a skill defender, and he simply does nothing skilled. Someone mentioned Steve McCarthy earlier in the thread and it's kind of the same thing - a guy who had a big 'skill pedigree' at age 18 but doesn't really show any skill at this level in his mid-20s. He's a below-average skater. He struggles moving the puck. He isn't showing a great shot. There's really nothing there.

 

[Pip]

I can't get over how non-dynamic he looks on the ice. He's 23, but he looks like one of those 40+ year old beer leaguers who are starting to lose their battle against carbs and gravity.

4th year pro too, so have to assume this is just who he is? Rather than just one Virtanen-like out of shape summer. Such an uninspiring player. Makes total sense for Benning to target this guy.

This is where I’m at. I can live with some defensive issues or inconsistent play from a young player, but only if he shows some high level ability as well. Right now, it looks like if Pouliot straightens out his defensive issues he’ll be an unremarkable depth defender and a complete waste of a pick.

He simply needs to start impacting the game somehow and I’m starting to doubt that he’s even capable of doing that.

 

[krutovsdonut]

I can't get over how non-dynamic he looks on the ice. He's 23, but he looks like one of those 40+ year old beer leaguers who are starting to lose their battle against carbs and gravity.

4th year pro too, so have to assume this is just who he is? Rather than just one Virtanen-like out of shape summer. Such an uninspiring player. Makes total sense for Benning to target this guy.

non-dynamic is not quite right. he's a non-dynamic skater trying to do dynamic things as a playmaker with a small side helping of unforced errors. but otoh he seems to be able to play fairly steady defence but is just not fast enough to recover from his mistakes. overall he's gotten into a lot less trouble than i would expect from an eye test. maybe just luck and being sheltered and unscouted.

if he was faster on the pivot and his first steps he'd be a very interesting prospect. what is weird is the old scouting reports praise his skating.

right now i'd say if he can survive the way he is until edler gets back he will then have some black ace time to work on his skating and could look like a different player if he can find some jump. i guess i will hope for that.

 

[DL44]

Could not disagree more.

He was awful last night. I'm trying to watch him pretty closely and there were basic positional errors and blatant turnovers on almost every shift. And nothing going the other way to compensate.

You can take pretty much any OK AHL defender and give him minutes that soft, and he'll do OK. As McEneny did last year.

Will watch him more closely in coming games...

Of note... watching Gudbranson getting offensively aggressive (jumping up, pinching, etc) made me swing my eyes across to see who his partner was backing him up, and that's when I noticed it was Pouliot.
It was a reversal in terms role expectation... and the observations I had was how he held back as final responsibility as Gudbranson worked his down the zone... His play overall didn't stand out to me like it did for you... Will watch closer next game.

 

[DL44]

Could not disagree more.

He was awful last night. I'm trying to watch him pretty closely and there were basic positional errors and blatant turnovers on almost every shift. And nothing going the other way to compensate.

You can take pretty much any OK AHL defender and give him minutes that soft, and he'll do OK. As McEneny did last year.

I watched him closer this game... i failed to see the egregious play from him that you so adamantly claim hes guilty of.

I should say i tried to to watch... couldnt handle more than a few seconds of his shift at a time for how sound he was playing.... BORING... just like you want your dmen to be.

 

[Kryten]

Watched the 2nd and 3rd of tonights game. Looked awful in his own zone just laughable. Had some okay offensive jump in plays, extremely similar to Sbisa except I liked Sbisas takaway ability more. Overall a disaster of a player

 

[CanaFan]

I watched him closer this game... i failed to see the egregious play from him that you so adamantly claim hes guilty of.

I should say i tried to to watch... couldnt handle more than a few seconds of his shift at a time for how sound he was playing.... BORING... just like you want your dmen to be.

Watched the 2nd and 3rd of tonights game. Looked awful in his own zone just laughable. Had some okay offensive jump in plays, extremely similar to Sbisa except I liked Sbisas takaway ability more. Overall a disaster of a player

Hmmmmm. Something isn’t adding up here...

 

[Numba9]

Watched the 2nd and 3rd of tonights game. Looked awful in his own zone just laughable. Had some okay offensive jump in plays, extremely similar to Sbisa except I liked Sbisas takaway ability more. Overall a disaster of a player

Oh come on, where is "the worst defenceman ever"? If you're going for it, go all out. You must be new.

 

[DL44]

Watched the 2nd and 3rd of tonights game. Looked awful in his own zone just laughable. Had some okay offensive jump in plays, extremely similar to Sbisa except I liked Sbisas takaway ability more. Overall a disaster of a player

Hmmmmm. Something isn’t adding up here...

I have it pvr'd...
Surely you can point me to some memorable gaffes he had to exemplify your take...

Sometjing better than... 'every shift!!'

 

[Nomobo]

I have it pvr'd...
Surely you can point me to some memorable gaffes he had to exemplify your take...

 

[Kryten]

Oh come on, where is "the worst defenceman ever"? If your going for it, go all out. You must be new.

Didnt nitpick his every play or watch him like a hawk on every shift. Just noticed him when around the puck and plays near him which had my head shaking too many times. further testing required, he makes me as sad/happy as Gudbranson does but at 1/4 the cost.

Worst. Defenseman. Ever, but not really, almost though

 

[sting101]

offensively he makes clean smart passes, has nice hands and has a good handle on timing of making plays, needs to be more aggressive with his shot.
transitional defending he turns too slow and yields too much ice.
transitional offense is probably his strong point but he needs to be faster at supporting plays going forward.
defensively he's passive, watches way too much gets drawn out of position and doesn't staple anyone and his stick is not great.
skating is ok going forward, weak going back, terrible transitionally and he's too slow to get going.

i didn't mind the gamble but i hadn't seen him play in a LOOONG time. He's a way better player than Larsen who had the wheels but no vision or timing but without improvements in his skating and assertiveness he's a depth player. Lets hope he just needs a commitment to fitness to step up his game. i know he had some injury issues with Pittsburgh as well.

 

[Sawchuk]

I have it pvr'd...
Surely you can point me to some memorable gaffes he had to exemplify your take...

Sometjing better than... 'every shift!!'

I recall one bad giveaway in the second, but really that's probably about average for any player. Looking at the box-score he had no giveaways though for what that means.

Liked his game today. I think we saw one or two glimpses (that play were he just about split the D, when he hit the crossbar on the PP) of the offensive potential. Maybe his confidence on offense is emerging. In a sheltered 13 or so minutes, he and Biega were good. It's just a question of whether he can start to do enough on attack to merit being played as a PP specialist, because with his size and mediocre skating, I don't think he'll likely be an all-around D-man; but, that said, he's not horrendous defensively in all aspects, just mediocre facing the rush, and probably prone to be more adventurous than he needs to be on the breakout.

 

[VanJack]

Canucks Army singing his praises in this game, saying it was his best game yet with the Canucks.....paired with Biega which figured to be a white knuckle tandem at the best of times.....but he drove positive possession numbers all game long.....could only recall one real bad giveaway, which is pretty standard for a depth d-man on the tail end of a five game roadtrip....any time you can shut out a team on the road it's pretty hard to criticize any of the d-men.

 

[DL44]

I’ll help... I remember one play where one of the two rookies that started with a K came down the right wing on him and took him wide and got a shot off that Nilsson handled...
Pouliot was in the process of being beaten while skating backwards and decided to turn at which point the player had a step on him... he tried to get his stick in but didn't reach the shot.
OMG!
Anything else?

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

Watched the 2nd and 3rd of tonights game. Looked awful in his own zone just laughable. Had some okay offensive jump in plays, extremely similar to Sbisa except I liked Sbisas takaway ability more. Overall a disaster of a player

Just finished watching the game....I don't know what player you were watching,Pouliot had a decent game ..(Obviously,the coach thought so as well)....In fact,there wasn't a single player on the Canucks in tonights game who are worthy of these comments ..Says more about the poster than the player.

 

[absolute garbage]

He butchered so many shots and passes on the PP. Brutal. Otherwise was better than last game, although still not showing really anything while playing very sheltered minutes.

 

[DL44]

Didnt nitpick his every play or watch him like a hawk on every shift. Just noticed him when around the puck and plays near him which had my head shaking too many times. further testing required, he makes me as sad/happy as Gudbranson does but at 1/4 the cost.

Worst. Defenseman. Ever, but not really, almost though

You are so full of crap...
Im so annoyed cuz i did a shift by shift breakdown of Pouliot's 2nd period.. and lost it! 40 f***ing mins it took me rewatch and log the 2nd period. Gone.

He had zero turnovers.. and zero struggles in his own zone. The most negative play you can come up with was the first shift where Kunin came down tje right wing on him, made hin turn and got a wrist shot in net as Pouliot was reaching... thats it.

I rewatched the 2nd half of the third(the part after Virtanen scored)... and there was the play (6:40ish) where Eriksson Ek stripped him of the puck behind the net that led to a scramble where the puck was sent thru the crease... maybe thats the play that erased all the rest game for you?

Your take is ridiculous... and wrong.


This automatic negative agenda against him f***ing dumb.

 

[MS]

He was better last night after being horrendous against Detroit but is still teetering defensively in really soft minutes while bringing nothing to the table offensively despite being given big PP minutes.

 

[crazychimp]

He butchered so many shots and passes on the PP. Brutal. Otherwise was better than last game, although still not showing really anything while playing very sheltered minutes.

Sure, but he looked dangerous out there. Most of our D-men can't create those chances on the pp except for him it seems. I like him out there in that situation.