JTG
Registered User
- Sep 30, 2007
- 50,522
- 5,782
And if Maatta had Despres' physical attributes, coupled with his brain for the game, we'd have a franchise top pairing defenseman. I'd argue that for every time Despres makes a dumb play, Maatta gets out skated or outmuscled.
I love Maatta. He had a very solid rookie year before falling off a bit of a cliff at the end. He then had a great month before missing the rest of his 2nd season. At this point, Maatta has never had a full season where he looked as good as Despres did last season. Does that mean he won't? No, of course not. There are too many questions with each of them to really say how either will play out. As it stands though, I'd say Despres has proven that he can successfully play well for an entire NHL season and playoff. Maatta hasn't done that yet.
I do agree with that. Despres right now would solve a pretty big problem on our back end.
Maatta's strength will come. Injuries have set him back, but he is 21 years old, and a full 3 years younger than Despres.