Depending on the ask from Nurse for his next contract, he’s more than solid at a second pairing D man. Those don’t grow on trees. Getting rid of guys like him, Petry, etc. hurt franchises long term.
From the current core Bear is the only one with top pairing upside as a #2 because of his puck movement and hockey IQ. I don’t see Bear as a true all situations #1 D but there’s nothing wrong with that. Top 4 D men are very valuable.
Bear, Jones, and Nurse I like long term as well. I’m quite bullish on Samorukov I think he is at the worst a solid bottom pairing guy, if he fully hits his potential he’s legit #2/3.
Broberg is tracking well and has #1 upside for me. Bouchard is another #2/3 with elite PP abilities.
We’ve got some really nice pieces in pipeline on D. I can’t remember the last time the system was this good on D, we likely have to go back to the 1980s.
What I would really like to see from Nurse is him dedicating himself to being an absolute defensive rock. A physical and positionally sound and aware defensive cornerstone of our team. Basically a tougher (better fighter anyway) and better skating version of Larsson in his 1st season here. Then have him continue to work on his breakout pass and slapper to round out his game. I know that offense is what takes defensemen into the next tier financially, but for this team to win IMO he needs to stop trying to play like an offensive defenseman. Petry was a beaut who just never broke out offensively here. I really liked him and watched him all the way back to his days at MSU. He was a huge loss to the team.
Completely agree on Bear, I am not sure that he has the skating and size to be a #1, but he could be a solid #2 and that would be great given his draft position.
Jones is a player that I like but probably not as much as Broberg, Bouchard and Samorukov. Next season will tell us a lot about what we have in Jones and if he is in our long term plans or not.
If Nurse could dial in on the defensive side of the puck we could see something like this long term:
Broberg-Bear
Nurse-Bouchard
Samorukov-Jones/?
Bro and Bear = a solid combo of 2 way defensemen. Nurse can help Bouch play his game by being his defensive conscience. Samorukov and Jones potentially could be one of the best 3rd pairings in the league.
Then we have guys like Kesselring and that other American kid whose name escapes me that played on the US WJC team a few years and maybe Berglund as well making a push down the line. This is the deepest that our team has been defensively prospect wise in eons.