Grats on the steal.
He's the most underrated player in the f***ing sport. Why the Flyers spent the last several years sabotaging one of their top 3 defensemen and cratering the value of their own asset will forever be a mystery to me. Ghost had a tendency to tell the truth, admitting to the press that he stopped listening to Hakstol, for example, which by the way, no one should listen to Hakstol if they want to win hockey games, and I suspect that had something to do with it. However, he seemed well-liked by the room.
First of all, there's a massive league-wide misconception that Ghost can't play D. Ghost is in fact a fine defenseman. He has flaws to his game, for example, he will always get outmuscled along the walls or in front of the net and those seem to be the only thing HockeyGuy TM cares about, but he does a ton of shit well. His defensive game is predicated on anticipation and his agility. He defends the blue line really well, he was probably the Flyers best defenseman defending 2 on 1s, he's a high IQ player who's great at puck retrieval and excellent on the breakout, able to effortlessly skate or pass it out. He's not even soft, despite what the neanderthal portion of the Flyers fanbase thinks. Ghost will occasionally pull out a hard hit that impacts possession, as opposed to a guy like Hagg who racks up "hits" bumping guys every shift behind the net long after the puck has already been moved.
Offensively, he's great. He's not just a PP weapon with a heavy shot, though he's that as well. He sees the ice well and can distribute or assertively jump up into the play when appropriate to attack. Injuries robbed him of some of speed but he still uses his agility to shake guys to open up a lane, though less than in the past, and he's a freaking shortstop knocking down line drives out there at the point. Seriously, I've never seen anything like his ability to literally lay out to knock down hard clearing attempts to keep the play alive, it's uncanny.
One of the insane things that happened 2 ago is that Ghost was battling Robert f***ing Hagg for ice time - maybe the worst defenseman in the league - and when Ghost played, he was tethered to bottom 6ers, while Hagg was strapped to guys like Giroux and Couturier, and then Ghost was blasted for his offense falling off. Or like how Giroux, Voracek, Ghost was one of the most dangerous OT combos in the league for several years running, and then the Flyers stopped using it and never tried it again. Or how AV & Michel Therrien gave Provorov Ghost's 1PP spot for 1.5 years, despite the fact that it was not f***ing working, only to reluctantly give in late last season, and then suddenly the PP was functional again.
I honestly hope your coaches don't HockeyGuy TM him to death like the Flyers have for the last several years and recognize he's a legit top 4 defender well worth his contract.
