Player Discussion Adam "the Magician" Larsson

[Canovin]

No one hates Larsson. It's just that it shouldn't cost us Hall

 

[Mc5RingsAndABeer]

that stat is definitely obscure, and represents something we can replace. Every one of the "core" players of this team has some neat stat that says they're the best.

No, it's not. It's points per minute on the ice. At even strength.

 

[Draw Me a McElephant]

I still hate this trade, but looking at the NJ board makes me feel a little better. NJ fans seem to think very highly of Larsson. Still though, if he's not the next Hedman then we lose this one badly. We take all of the risk in this trade.

 

[Kelevra]

For everyone bringing up the Green effect, when they are apart Larsson has a corsi of 54 and green has 49

Whose making who look better?

 

[Kelevra]

I still hate this trade, but looking at the NJ board makes me feel a little better. NJ fans seem to think very highly of Larsson. Still though, if he's not the next Hedman then we lose this one badly. We take all of the risk in this trade.

If he is the next hedman who loses this trade by a landslide? Its not us...NJ is taking risk too.

 

[Jumptheshark]

I don't think our fanbase is ready to have a reasonable discussion about him yet.

no we are not==when he starts playing 20 to 25 minutes a game--that is when we will have the discussion

 

[Arpeggio]

It's over, it's done, I'm fully on the Larsson will be the next Hedman bandwagon.

 

[Ladra]

He seems like exactly what the doctor ordered. Big, cheap, under contract, two-way, RShot all situations defender.

He is terrble - could almost gamble on nurse or reinhart to take the next step...

 

[oilwave]

For everyone bringing up the Green effect, when they are apart Larsson has a corsi of 54 and green has 49

Whose making who look better?

Exactly. Also before he was with Greene he was extremely young. Development is much more likely to be the explanation for his growth than Andy fricken Greene

 

[Young Lions*]

If he is the next hedman who loses this trade by a landslide? Its not us...NJ is taking risk too.

The chances of him becoming the next Hedman are about the same as me becoming the next Hedman.

 

[AlowlyMcOilersfan]

Maybe he can be the Swedish Pronger

 

[Aerrol]

I feel awful for him. I hate this trade, but it's not his fault Hall was traded for him. Expectations are going to be ridiculous for him. If he doesn't excel, he'll be getting hatemail within a week.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

http://www.allaboutthejersey.com/2016/2/12/10974744/new-top-dog-adam-larsson

 

[Young Lions*]

I feel awful for him. I hate this trade, but it's not his fault Hall was traded for him. Expectations are going to be ridiculous for him. If he doesn't excel, he'll be getting hatemail within a week.

All he has to do is put up 50 points from the back end and become a possession monster instead of a black hole.

Easy enough, right?

 

[Panda Bear]

He wasn't in November of 2014. Then he got paired with Andy Greene, and has the same results every partner of Andy Greene has had for 7 years. Is Mark Fayne a top-4 defenseman?

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Adam Larsson deserves more credit. But there's at least a chance he doesn't.

Yeah, you're wrong.

Larsson was seen as being at least equal to Greene last year.

 

[Panda Bear]

All he has to do is put up 50 points from the back end and become a possession monster instead of a black hole.

Easy enough, right?

Larsson and Cammalleri, when they were on the ice together, outperformed their opposition in terms of Corsi, Fenwick, and Goals.

I think we have better players than Cammalleri.

 

[Panda Bear]

FUN FACTS TIME

1. New Jersey Devils scored the fewest number of goals in the league with 182. The second worst team (Vancouver) scored 186 goals, and the third worst team (Carolina and Toronto) scored 192. New Jersey allowed 202 goals. Their GF% was 47.3%.
2. But that includes powerplay time, and Larsson was too busy playing averaging 22:31 a game in even strength and penalty kill.
3. At even strength, New Jersey had a GF% of 45.2%.
4. Larsson's GF% was 55.4%. He was one of four players on his team to have a positive +- On/60.
5. New Jersey Devils were worst in the league at generating shots with 24.4 shots generated per game and allowed 28.6 shots per game. The team's Corsi% was 46.0%.
6. Adam Larsson's 44.9%, which is -1.1% relatively, but...
7. When games were close and you adjusted for zone, New Jersey's Corsi% was 47.3%. So was Larsson's with the same adjustments.
8. He had one of the highest defensive zone start percentages in the league at 47.4%. His OffZone Start % was 30.5%, and his OffZone Finish % was 42.5%. His ZSO%Rel was -24.9%.
9. The only defencemen who had worse Corsi Quality of Teammates (i.e. average Corsi of Teammates, weighted by ice time together) were players from Colorado, who are blessed with the worst head coach in the NHL right now.

Basically, Larsson did extremely well given how horrendous the quality of his team was. When he and Mike Cammalleri were on the ice together (which rarely happened due to Mike's injuries), they were actually outshooting the opposition.

Imagine what it'll be like for Larsson to use his fantastic first pass for the likes of McDavid, Draisaitl, Puljujarvi, Eberle and so on instead of Cammalleri (half the time), Palmieri, Zajac, and Henrique.

Or Lucic, Nugent-Hopkins, and Maroon instead of Stephen Gionta, Jordin Tootoo, or Tuomo Ruutu.

 

[Mr Positive]

It's over, it's done, I'm fully on the Larsson will be the next Hedman bandwagon.

It could happen. Hedman had a very similar early career. Of course, he needs to continue to trend up for that to happen, but I like his odds. We are becoming stacked at forward, and he will have some interesting D partners here on the LHD. It starts with Klef and Sekera of course, but even Davidson and Nurse could be good partners for him down the line.

 

[Homesick]

Look, Larsson is a fine defenceman, but he will always be compared to Hall. He has to be a number one or the fans are going to run him right out of town.

If he's a #2 we won the trade. Pretty obvious that Hall wasn't going to get a 1D like Subban, OEL, Pietrangelo, Doughty, Burns, Suter, Josi, Weber, Keith, Letang, Karlsson, Hedman, Faulk, Brodie, E.Johnson, Byfuglien or even potential kids like Ekblad, Hanifin, Lindholm, Parayko, Ristolainen

 

[Aerrol]

All he has to do is put up 50 points from the back end and become a possession monster instead of a black hole.

Easy enough, right?

Super easy. I'm loving quotes from devils fans like "I think if given PP time in Edmonton, he can top definitely achieve 40 points in some years."

and

"He has a great first pass. Not a great shot, and still not a great skater. But he's fantastic positionally and very very good on the PK. He'll likely never be a great offensive guy, but he's one of the better defensive dmen in the game and can play tough minutes. He's what you needed, but you likely overpaid."

 

[Homesick]

I'd almost like to see the Oilers add a LH and RH high offense guys on the back end. A LH(Fowler?) to play with Larsson and a RH to play with Sekera.
Not sold on the puny sample sizes of Oscar Glassbom

 

[Panda Bear]

Super easy. I'm loving quotes from devils fans like "I think if given PP time in Edmonton, he can top definitely achieve 40 points in some years."

and

"He has a great first pass. Not a great shot, and still not a great skater. But he's fantastic positionally and very very good on the PK. He'll likely never be a great offensive guy, but he's one of the better defensive dmen in the game and can play tough minutes. He's what you needed, but you likely overpaid."

We don't need the two bolded parts, though, if we have Klefbom. Larsson lets Klefbom become a rover without us having to worry about who's left back there.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

I really hope some don't run this kid out of time, I like this player (the trade is terrible, not his fault).

He's going to help this team. I'm looking forward to see what he brings to the organization.

 

[Aerrol]

We don't need the two bolded parts, though, if we have Klefbom. Larsson lets Klefbom become a rover without us having to worry about who's left back there.

LOL. YES WE DO. Klefbom has a career high of 20 points. He showed some promise offensively but don't feed me the garbage that he's magically the solution for our incredible woes on puck-moving at the back end.

 

[Young Lions*]

Love the fans trying to turn this pile of chicken**** into chicken salad. They're dancing in the streets on the New Jersey board.