I'm not disagreeing with you. When he got that contract though he was coming off a season being our number 1 defenseman at just 25 years old I think he was. He was our best defensive D and was playing really well on a defensive pairing for like 2.5 years with Kyle Quincey along with chipping in 25 points per. That's a number three D.
Right now he's getting ****ing killed defensively. He's not chipping in offensively either. Mike Green has taken the reigns of this team, and has went with it. With that said we need a legit number one TWD.
It again bumps everyone down. I wish there was a way to get OEL. Before people go there, Trouba is not a number one, more so a number threee. This is going to sound really sketchy but I wonder if we could trade Petr Mrazek for Justin Faulk...
Run a Howard/Lack combo assuming we deal a pick as well. Have Coreau up when Howard is down.
DeKeyser-Faulk
Ericsson-Green
Kronwall-Marchenko
Sproul/XO/Smith - not sure what happens here assuming one is gone.
Well this strengthens my argument though that DeKeyser isn't a three. Trouba is a better hockey player in every aspect aside from emergency defending (where DeKeyser since he entered the league is one of the better guys in the NHL) in my opinion.
We need to do something about our back-end and in a hurry. This team cannot get better until the back-end is better in my opinion.
The good news as winger pointed out is I still believe DeKeyser's contract is very movable should we go in that direction.
I think he will be here for a long time. I think he is just having a really rough season, because he didn't make the necessary improvements in the off-season. He needs to work on aspects of his game and I think he will. I don't see any offense really coming, but I think we will get a better version of his defensive zone play in the coming seasons.
I guess I am just surprised if he is lol #3 it suggests at least to me that he is a really good one. To me he hasn't been and needs to start making bigger steps for it to at least be hilarious that I cannot place him higher than a #4. That isn't what I am seeing out of DK, but he is far from a lost cause, I just hope we can get more help so he is down the lineup.
I think with how far we will have to wait for a real core defensive piece to replace him, DK is really all we got for the next few seasons. That's why I didn't really mind the contract. It's more than he is worth, but we don't have much choice.
But we kill other contracts around here where that would apply. Abdelkader played above station and doesn't have incredible numbers but he has good enough numbers to be near his contract range. Plays in all situations and so on and so forth. That contact is up for an open season debate but DK's isn't worth talking about?
I get Winger's point that DK is younger and more movable and that I am in full agreement with. But DK isn't playing to his contract, in fact he is one of our worst violators this season in terms of not playing to what his $ amount is. He can be called out and certainly belongs in the conversation of giving too much term and money to a player that isn't necessarily deserving of it.