Player Discussion With the benefit of hindsight, would you like to have Gryba on the roster?

[jbeck5]

Could he have been the lesser of three evils (Cowen and Wiercioch)?

No! No! No!

I've been wanting all 3 gone for a long time. The fact we've got rid of 2 so far is huge improvement.

One more to go.

 

[KevinRedkey]

No! No! No!

I've been wanting all 3 gone for a long time. The fact we've got rid of 2 so far is huge improvement.

One more to go.

This.

 

[Lenny the Lynx]

I never understood the rationale of trading him first, mainly because of the implications for the penalty kill.

Gryba was nothing special, but he was decent on the PK and he ate up a lot of hard minutes so that Karlsson could rest. Ceci also plays a lot on the PK but he wasn't the #1 choice all the time. Although Wideman is a better player overall than Gryba, he's a worse defender and a worse PKer.

Last year on the right side of the PK it was basically split between Ceci and Gryba - 190 and 187 minutes of PK each. This year Ceci is playing about the same, but Karlsson is player almost 1.5 minutes a game of PK. The rest of the job is being done by D on their wrong side.

Our PK is a tirefire this year and I think this is a big part of why that is.

I don't mind that they traded Gryba but would have preferred to see Cowen, Wier & Boro all gone first as they have very few redeeming qualities.

 

[jbeck5]

I never understood the rationale of trading him first, mainly because of the implications for the penalty kill.

Gryba was nothing special, but he was decent on the PK and he ate up a lot of hard minutes so that Karlsson could rest. Ceci also plays a lot on the PK but he wasn't the #1 choice all the time. Although Wideman is a better player overall than Gryba, he's a worse defender and a worse PKer.

Last year on the right side of the PK it was basically split between Ceci and Gryba - 190 and 187 minutes of PK each. This year Ceci is playing about the same, but Karlsson is player almost 1.5 minutes a game of PK. The rest of the job is being done by D on their wrong side.

Our PK is a tirefire this year and I think this is a big part of why that is.

I don't mind that they traded Gryba but would have preferred to see Cowen, Wier & Boro all gone first as they have very few redeeming qualities.

All semantics.

I think most agreed gryba,wiercioch,cowen, borowiecki are all very bad NHL players or 7th defenseman. The day we improve our chance to compete is the day we have 6 better defenseman playing infront of them. We're almost there.

Doesn't really matter who we got rid of first provided WE ARE getting rid of them all.

 

[jbeck5]

As an example, use our stanley cup finalist D corps as a comparison.

Redden-Meszaros
Phillips-volchenkov
Preissing-Corvo

All were significantly better than Cowen,Wiercioch,Borowiecki, Gryba. You can't have big slow offensively inept defenseman unless they're elite defensively(like volchenkov for a couple years). Problem is these big slow guys are terrible defensively and get beat often and make mistakes often.

 

[The Lewler]

No.

Why do we spend so much time talking about #6-#7 D on here? Inquiring minds.

 

[Lenny the Lynx]

All semantics.

I think most agreed gryba,wiercioch,cowen, borowiecki are all very bad NHL players or 7th defenseman. The day we improve our chance to compete is the day we have 6 better defenseman playing infront of them. We're almost there.

Doesn't really matter who we got rid of first provided WE ARE getting rid of them all.

Yes they all suck.

But its not semantics to say that maybe it wasn't the best idea to make the first move on a key PK player, when doing so meant Karlsson would have to take on these additional (hard) minutes. Our PK is a big reason why this team is out of the playoffs, its gone from 11th to 29th.

What bugs me is they got rid of Gryba first merely because he had the lowest perceived ceiling. Our management has been so stubborn hanging on to hope that Cowen and/or Wiercioch were going to magically turn into top 4 D.

 

[aragorn]

I don't think it had anything to do with Boro or Gryba, I believe what BM said, they moved Gryba to give Wiercioch & Cowen more ice time, Boros spot on the roster was already cemented with the new 3 yr contract they gave him. I also think they moved Gryba to make room for Wideman who is also a right shot like Gryba & won best defenceman in the AHL. And next yr he will probably move Wiercioch to make room on the roster for Claesson would be my guess.

 

[Xspyrit]

Gryba is a RHD, Cowen and Wier are both LHD. The question is: Gryba or Wideman? IMO Wideman is better.

Yes. That's what most people (including the usual complainers) wanted and they got it. Hard to complain now

 

[Slack]

Gryba was a decent 3rd pairing D, but we're better off with Wideman IMO. Even if Wideman doesn't progress much there's nothing wrong with having a point producer on the third pair.

We'd do better to upgrade his LD partner (which can probably be addressed through the system next season).

 

[Vesa Awesaka]

No. In general the defense needed to change. Not worth committing term to

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Gryba is a RHD, Cowen and Wier are both LHD. The question is: Gryba or Wideman? IMO Wideman is better.

This.


Gryba simply couldn't handle the puck at all with us. He couldn't even chip the puck along the boards out of the defensive zone.

He may be playing slightly better in Edmonton, but that doesn't change how he played with us and our system.