The Kessel Run
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- Jun 7, 2011
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I've watched a tonne of Isles games this year and Nick Leddy is one of the best and most underrated D men in the NHL. This one is easily Leddy. Tremendous puck mover, skater, and smart player.
This looks like a bad take now with hindsight.
Leddy's been a train wreck defensively this year, and despite his point totals, he never looks like a great choice to run the PP.
Old post. That post was made at a time when Leddy was playing well. Not sure your reasoning for bringing this up now. But right now I agree, he is playing far too high in the line up, even with Boychuck back, both are not #1 pairing D man. Snow will need to find a 1 pairing if this team is to go fwd. Put him lower in the line up as the other 2 play, and I think his game will look far better.
That was from November. He was playing very well at the time. Never claimed he was a top pairing D man. This poll is on mostly #2 pairing D men.I didn't bump the thread. Someone above me did. I just noticed your post on the first page and thought it was funny in hindsight given just how awful Leddy's been for most of this season.
Leddy's simply not a top pairing defender. He's too weak defensively, and his offense isn't good enough to offset being a defensive liability.
That was from November. He was playing very well at the time. Never claimed he was a top pairing D man. This poll is on mostly #2 pairing D men.
Surely, you can understand the effect when a player is playing with a weaker line up or higher than where they should be slotted being a Pens fan.
Justin Schultz on the Pens is a lot better than he was on the Oilers.
Leddy is in the same class, puck mover with some production but not so strong defensively. So really the situation is not the best for him right now. Doesn't mean he is a poor player.
And this bump(not you) and reply allowed me to amend/clarify that best descriptor. In the players that were being compared. I don't believe anyone would put them in the best category for defencemen. In his class of D men, I do think Leddy could be one of the better ones as Schultz has turned out. Good comparison I agree.Your assessment in this post is bang on. But the post of yours I quoted described Leddy as "Nick Leddy is one of the best and most underrated D men in the NHL".
As you can see from the bolded, you weren't just describing a 2nd pairing guy. Which is why I found it funny when I read it.
In any case, you're right above. I actually have compared him to Schultz in the past, in that he's a good offensive defenseman who needs to be sheltered on the second pairing because he's only "meh" defensively.
I went with Gardiner.
He gets crapped on because of his weak competition, but according to puckiq, he's never really had trouble with elite competition, albeit in smaller samples.
Brodie has never been able to drive play without Giordano on the ice.
Leddy is just there. He's fine, but he's just....he's fine.
True, but I mean, Ray Bourque was known for doing that once a game.My issue with Gardiner is the same sort of issue Letang can struggle with at times. For 95% of the game they could be real ice tilters, but seem prone to come up with one or two absolutely mind-boggling errors in judgment that stick out in your mind.
I can't count the number of games I've watched the Leafs where Gardiner's having a fantastic game to the point you think he's ready to enter the elite category, but then out of the blue he'll do something so moronic that you're left thinking, "Yep, he's back".
gards has had a solid season?Voted Brodie, as he's easily had the highest peak of the 3 Dmen and should still be capable of playing at that high level.
He's had a really bad year this year and it's a cause for concern for the Flames, but I'm not prepared to anoint him worse then either of Gardiner or Leddy after one bad year, not when the gap was so big between the trio just before this and not when both Gardiner and Leddy have had fairly pedestrian years themselves.