i agree with all three of you guys.
trig, you're right jones has made improvements specifically to his defensive zone coverge. and for the first real time he's been getting pp and pk time which in the long run he needed to further develop his growth.
and drake and voldy, you are both right of course, for his age, he has progressed very well. he's actually a better all around player at his age than either weber or suter were.
the areas he still needs to work on to become the really good d-man we want him to be remain;
1)better decision making on the breakout. we now get one awful mental lapse every couple games instead of every game last year on the breakout when under no pressure. most often that mistake has been the lazy pass up the middle of the ice. (which as you can tell drives me nuts).
2)he plays far too small for his size. hopefully as he matures and adds muscle he will begin to use that size and play a more physical game.
3)he's a great puck handler thru the neutral zone, but once he gets there tends to not make decisions fast enough too often right now.
4)use those offensive skills better on the point on the pp. after two years, i still don't really know if he has a slap shot.
5)keep his momma's mouth shut. still bugs me she was *****ing publicly about him not getting first line minutes last year.
i know he has high upside. possibly elite upside. i can be patient waiting for that. however, i do think he will be at risk to be traded in the future because not sure we can tie up that large of a percentage of our payroll (weber) on our blueline. probably poile's mistake in trading stevens might prevent that, but i just don't know.
