2015-16 Line-up discussion - focus on D edition

[2faded]

I hope Theo picks up where he left off. Excited to see him back in the NHL.

 

[Ducks DVM]

Good news!

Or horrible news, unless you think he's better than Vatanen, because it means Vatanen is nowhere close to a return.

 

[Static]

Our injuries are happening at the worst possible time. Who sits for Theo? Would be a shame if it's Holzer, he looks just fine with Fowler.

 

[dracom]

Or horrible news, unless you think he's better than Vatanen, because it means Vatanen is nowhere close to a return.

It'd be kinda of good news if it meant Bieksa played less, but it won't be. I bet Bieksa goes back with Fowler, because reasons.

 

[Nordic*]

Our injuries are happening at the worst possible time. Who sits for Theo? Would be a shame if it's Holzer, he looks just fine with Fowler.

Holzer is better than both Stoner and Bieksa.

The latter will never ever sit though, or heck, even play third string minutes.

Biorksa regularely gets top-2 minutes, which baffles me.

 

[2faded]

Or horrible news, unless you think he's better than Vatanen, because it means Vatanen is nowhere close to a return.

 

[AngelDuck]

How do you know?

I obviously don't know for sure, but Manson is way cheaper, is homegrown, has less of an injury history, and is currently playing better than Despres. He's also a more physical player willing to drop the gloves more often. It seems like he'd easily have more value to a budget team, and that's coming from a huge Despres fan.

As for the panic over losing a player to the expansion draft: it is a little confusing. We're a fan base that raves about our scouts ability to draft NHL defensemen in any round. They got Vatanen and Manson in the mid-to-late rounds of the draft, and Montour at the end of the 2nd round. We have Theodore and Montour ripping it up in the AHL and Larsson who everyone says is extrememly polished likely coming over to San Diego next year. You either have confidence that our coaches can develop those players like they did Vatanen, Manson, LIndholm, Fowler or you don't.That's kind of the life of a budget team. You pick the best players to protect from the expansion, move on from the rest for futures (or forward help), and give a young kid (Theodore) a shot. We're not the only team that will have to do that, but we are in a better situation with more talent on defense to survive than almost any team

It's time to stop viewing Lindholm, Fowler, and Vatanen as kids. They're the core of the defense and are now the guys that will have to take hard matchups away from Theodore/Montour/Larsson when their time comes.

 

[Spazkat]

Not good. Looks like neither will be back for the rest of the road trip

 

[Ducks in a row]

Not good. Looks like neither will be back for the rest of the road trip