Rank Our Dmen From Rielly to Just Drafted (In Terms of Upside AND Readiness)

[schenneuf]

They all have "high end" D men, but I think Reilly is and will be even more so high end in the years to come.

So my point is Reilly can be our number 1. Just like Letang, Burns, etc. We don't need to be stuck on this requirement of a elite D man to win.

I agree with 93 Leafs. Now that we've got Matthews, the realistic goal and expectation is a cup. We now need to expect the very best, and we can afford to let go of some bias and homerism. If we are to win a cup, we need to supplant Rielly with a big, skilled D. Rielly simply doesn't have the size to be elite on D. He can be elite offensively and decent-good defensively... but he can't physically impose his will on the game in his own end.

 

[The_Chosen_One]

I agree with 93 Leafs. Now that we've got Matthews, the realistic goal and expectation is a cup. We now need to expect the very best, and we can afford to let go of some bias and homerism. If we are to win a cup, we need to supplant Rielly with a big, skilled D. Rielly simply doesn't have the size to be elite on D. He can be elite offensively and decent-good defensively... but he can't physically impose his will on the game in his own end.

Rielly has an extra ten pounds over Doughty and is no smaller either. Advanced stats tellls us that he along with Gardiner are posting pretty strong defensive numbers.

Yes, having a big D can help but it's not the end of the world if we wait it out. I really don't think moving out our big skilled winger up for a big defenceman doesn't really make any sense at all. I think we're better off being built more like Anaheim where there is size up front, and the D isn't that large. Hell, Rielly is more built than Lindholm despite being significantly shorter.

 

[TheProspector]

Gardiner

Rielly



A bunch of ****.

 

[deletethis]

names in alphabetical order only

Bucket 1: Rielly
Bucket 2: Reilly, Gardiner
Bucket 3: Carrick, Dermott, Marincin, Nielsen, Valiev, Zaitsev, Loov
Bucket 4: Corrado, Harrington, Percy, Loov
Bucket 5: Desrochers, Holl, Lindgren

And really, buckets 4 and 5 mean you're not really worth hoping on much other than maybe some serviceable bottom pair years.

This is almost exact to my thinking. Just put Rielly down a level for not having elite offensive abilities. Plug in that high end offensive defenseman into the first slot and this team has the 3 type of defenders (maybe 4, Zaitsev? Carrick?) that contenders have. Rotate in the other 3 to 4 spots cheaply either internally from the above prospects or externally and the team is set for much of the next half decade on defense.

 

[zeke]

I agree with 93 Leafs. Now that we've got Matthews, the realistic goal and expectation is a cup. We now need to expect the very best, and we can afford to let go of some bias and homerism. If we are to win a cup, we need to supplant Rielly with a big, skilled D. Rielly simply doesn't have the size to be elite on D. He can be elite offensively and decent-good defensively... but he can't physically impose his will on the game in his own end.

Team Leaders in ice time per game:

TOR M.Rielly 6'1" 214lbs

OTT E.Karlsson 6'0" 190lbs
MIN R.Suter 6'2" 206lbs
LAK D.Doughty 6'1" 195lbs
PIT K.Letang 6'0" 201lbs
STL A.Pietrangelo 6'3" 210lbs
MTL P.Subban 6'0" 210lbs
SJS B.Burns 6'5" 230lbs
BUF R.Ristolainen 6'4" 207lbs
NSH R.Josi 6'1" 201lbs
CGY T.Brodie 6'1" 182lbs
CHI D.Keith 6'1" 192lbs
WPG D.Byfuglien 6'5" 260lbs
COL F.Beauchemin 6'1" 208lbs
ARZ O.E-Larsson 6'2" 200lbs
VAN A.Edler 6'3" 215lbs
WSH M.Niskanen 6'0" 200lbs
CBJ J.Johnson 6'1" 230lbs
BOS Z.Chara 6'9" 250lbs
CAR J.Faulk 6'0" 215lbs
DAL A.Goligoski 5'11" 185lbs
NYI T.Hamonic 6'2" 205lbs
PHI M.DelZotto 6'0" 195lbs
TBL V.Hedman 6'6" 223lbs
ANA C.Fowler 6'1" 207lbs
NJD A.Greene 5'11 190lbs
NYR R.McDonagh 6'1" 215lbs
DET N.Kronwall 6'0" 195lbs
FLA B.Campbell 5'11" 192lbs
EDM A.Sekera 6'0" 198lbs

 

[zeke]

This is almost exact to my thinking. Just put Rielly down a level for not having elite offensive abilities. Plug in that high end offensive defenseman into the first slot and this team has the 3 type of defenders (maybe 4, Zaitsev? Carrick?) that contenders have. Rotate in the other 3 to 4 spots cheaply either internally from the above prospects or externally and the team is set for much of the next half decade on defense.

Age 21

A.Pietrangelo 79gms 43pts
D.Doughty 76gms 40pts
S.Weber 79gms 40pts
P.Subban 77gms 38pts
M.Rielly 82gns 36pts
K.Letang 74gms 33pts
B.Burns 77gms 25pts
OEL 48gms 24pts
V.Hedman 61gms 23pts
R.Josi 52gms 16pts
R.Suter 71gms 16pts
M.Green 70gms 12pts
R.McDonagh 40gms 9pts

 

[zeke]

Gardiner

Rielly



A bunch of ****.

included in that bunch of **** is the best dman in the KHL, and arguably the best dmen in the OHL and WHL.

 

[BreakingGood]

I know alot of people on here are high on Marincin i just find it hard that, if this guy could be a top4 mainstay like some believe, why would the most deprieved defensive team in the league (oilers) trade him here for Brad freaking Ross?

Probably for the same reason the Oilers suck every year.

 

[BreakingGood]

Which team doesn't have a high-end top pairing guy? From what I'm seeing the team who has the worst best defencemen is San Jose, and that guy somehow got nominated for a Norris. Pietrangelo, Letang and Hedman are all top 15 defenders, and probably all top 10. None are Doughty, Karlson or Keith, but all can easily be argued as top 10 defenders in the league.

I can't believe I'm getting into the Pietrangelo is overrated bit in two threads at once, but Vlasic and Burns are both a lot better than him, and I'd actually take Shattenkirk and Parayko on his own team ahead of him.

 

[diceman934]

The game has moved away from a big strong D man as the ankor on the backend and has moved towards a D man who can skate or pass the puck up ice that transitions the puck to offense in a hurry. You need a big strong D man if the puck is in the D zone a lot. Teams are more focus on possession in the o zone and value skating over size. However calling Rielly small is wrong...He is super strong and physically can handle the rough going. Look for him to be top 10 in D man scoring this year.

 

[BreakingGood]

The game has moved away from a big strong D man as the ankor on the backend and has moved towards a D man who can skate or pass the puck up ice that transitions the puck to offense in a hurry. You need a big strong D man if the puck is in the D zone a lot. Teams are more focus on possession in the o zone and value skating over size. However calling Rielly small is wrong...He is super strong and physically can handle the rough going. Look for him to be top 10 in D man scoring this year.

My hot take: Lidstrom, Niedermayer, Coffey, Bourque, Potvin. You always needed D that could move the puck. Even if you look at the dominant big guys on D, famous for hitting and whatever, well, it isn't like Pronger, Chara, and Stevens were not good with the puck. Granted, their offensive skills were more about breakout passes and big shots than skating with the puck, but generally speaking there are very few guys who had sustained success as a high end D without at least high end transition game skills. Peaks of Marc Staal and Mike Komisarek didn't exactly last forever. The best and longest lasting goony D-men are like, who, Derian Hatcher and Adam Foote? And Hatcher had Zubov, and Foote generally had some combo of Blake, Bourque, or Ozolinsh when the Avalanche were good. I might be forgetting someone else.

 

[McMatthews]

Upside:

Morgan Rielly (1)
Jake Gardiner (3 or 4)
Nikita Zaitsev (3 or 4)
Travis Dermott (3 or 4)
Rinat Valiev (4 or 5)
Andrew Nielsen (4 or 5)
Connor Carrick (5 or 6)
Stuart Percy (5 or 6)
Martin Marincin (5 or 6)
Viktor Loov (6)
Frank Corrado (6)
Scott Harrington (6)

 

[Deebo]

You mean back in the day when there was no lottery?

Aki Berg was selected with the first lottery pick ever. LA finished with 7th worst record and won the lottery to move up 4 positions to 3rd in the draft.

 

[diceman934]

My hot take: Lidstrom, Niedermayer, Coffey, Bourque, Potvin. You always needed D that could move the puck. Even if you look at the dominant big guys on D, famous for hitting and whatever, well, it isn't like Pronger, Chara, and Stevens were not good with the puck. Granted, their offensive skills were more about breakout passes and big shots than skating with the puck, but generally speaking there are very few guys who had sustained success as a high end D without at least high end transition game skills. Peaks of Marc Staal and Mike Komisarek didn't exactly last forever. The best and longest lasting goony D-men are like, who, Derian Hatcher and Adam Foote? And Hatcher had Zubov, and Foote generally had some combo of Blake, Bourque, or Ozolinsh when the Avalanche were good. I might be forgetting someone else.

If you can not skate right now as a D man there is not much room for you in the NHL as you no longer can rough up a player without the puck when they are entering the zone nor run interference for your d partner. Polak cause us to have the puck in our zone more as he lacked transitional skating...He was ok on the PK as he was only asked to stay in a lane....

The game has changed a lot and still is as most coaches are coaching controlled zone entries and maintaining possession over the dump and chase game.