Just because a player is asked by the coaching staff to be defensively responsible does not mean they are hindering his offensive potential. See: Zucker, Jason
See: Coyle, Charlie. Also Zucker plays a solid two-way game. It's his speed that makes him a dangerous offensive threat but when drafted, no one expected him to be an offensive threat. I am surprised we haven't reigned that in a bit.
Granlund was breaking scoring records in Finland, and has pretty much been given the top line in his time here. We aren't holding him back, except for maybe the power play, which should be remedied this year.
We should move Granlund out to wing. And he has struggled to translate over his scoring game here to the NA game.
Maybe defensive reliability was a reason Coyle was moved to center, but it's not the reason.
Yes it is. He was a Koivu clone and the reason why we moved him to center. We ask our centers to be defensively responsible.
Just because somebody plays the center position and is asked to maintain some sort of level of defensive ability, doesn't mean that their offensive potential is being neutered. He has played center because a) he's better than Brodziak, b) he has experience at that position, and c) as a team, we are wing-heavy.
He had little experience at center before the Wild. He mainly played right wing. As well, if you ask the team to loosen the reins on defensive play down the middle, you think they are going to say yes? This team has an MO. Defensive responsible players > offensive production.
I can't find a single mention of Granlund's "two way game" or defensive responsibility in his draft profiles. Just glowing offensive, playmaking and hockey sense reviews.
He was smart but he wasn't a defensive liability. I'll find some reports later but I know that Granlund being a good two-way player was one of the reasons we picked him.
And Its pretty widely known that Lucia is a flat out liability in the D zone. He's a big scoring winger.
That one I might have been wrong about but I thought Lucia was seen as a two-way winger.
Dumba certainly wasn't picked for his two way play, nor Phillips(regardless of if he didn't develop, the Wild gave him every oppurtunity to).
Dumba is a defenseman. Phillips didn't develop here because we can't develop offense. Zucker is an anomaly but he also took 3 years and kept being sent down. There were also rumors he was very disgruntled at the time with the organization.
