Player Discussion Brendan Smith
- Thread starter TheGuarantee
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In a salary cap world, picks are gold. Especially to an organization whose farm system is among the most barren in the league.
So according to people in here, both Smith and McD suck.
PB and MH shouldn't be allowed to evaluate defensemen.
PB and MH shouldn't be allowed to evaluate defensemen.
TheGuarantee
Registered User
- Jul 1, 2016
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TheGuarantee
Registered User
- Jul 1, 2016
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MH stands on one leg when evaluating anyone, I read his posts for humor at this point
To say McDonagh sucks is unreasonable, but he is quite a bit overrated IMO. His defensive positioning in front of his own net is hilariously bad at times and he is too inconsistent for me to consider him a top 15 defenseman. There are plenty of lesser talked about defenseman that provide a similar impact that most wouldn't consider top 15. Guy is still living off his 13/14 playoffs reputation.
Smith is a good middle pairing D.
Smith is a good middle pairing D.
silverfish
got perma'd
How would an excel spreadsheet tell someone if a player is "dumb"? There's no dumb/60 metric. "dumb" is something you need to watch a player to think that they are.
I'm convinced that most "eye test" advocates don't watch the game either, they just go by reputation. If a player has a good season it takes like 3 seasons of meh play for them to re-evaluate their positions lol.
This is true, but I often wonder what the **** MH is watching
Harping on a guy because hes posted less than optimal corsi numbers away from Girardi while failing to take into account that hes playing on his offside with an even far more inferior player (Staal) is just the surface of it all. I don't give 2 ***** what the numbers say, if anyone says his last 2 games were poor, they're blind or just don't understand the game at all.
Pavel Buchnevich
Drury and Laviolette Must Go
So since this is the Smith thread and Geoff Gorden criticized me, why don't you tell me why I'm wrong that Smith is a dumb player?
This is true, but I often wonder what the **** MH is watching
Harping on a guy because hes posted less than optimal corsi numbers away from Girardi while failing to take into account that hes playing on his offside with an even far more inferior player (Staal) is just the surface of it all. I don't give 2 ***** what the numbers say, if anyone says his last 2 games were poor, they're blind or just don't understand the game at all.
Would you consider him a top ten defenseman in the league?
I do agree his main partners this season have been atrocious...but he just seems to get lost in his own zone a lot. Granted, this could be due to him having to play both ld/rd at the same time.
Simple answer: He isn't.
More complex answer: Hes done nothing to indicate that he is of below average hockey IQ. He hasn't been egregiously guilty of losing coverage, has done a fair job jumping into the play offensively and actually doing something positive with the puck when its on his stick, hes won board battles more often than not (this isn't an IQ thing, but its worth mentioning) and hes pretty good at moving the puck to an open winger against aggressive forecheckers allowing this team to do basically the only thing it excels at.
This isn't an easy system to step into and play in as a D either, and he hasn't looked remotely out of place (hes looked good overall.) If he were a dumb player, I think he'd be struggling a bit more.
I haven't seen all the bad penalties either (he got whistled for one last game that was complete bull ****.) I've counted one tripping call that was lazy but thats it.
10? No, 20? Yes.
Get him a real partner and you'll see most of his critics do an about face real quick.
Pavel Buchnevich
Drury and Laviolette Must Go
Most of those things you mentioned don't relate to hockey IQ, they relate to his tool-kit, which I have said is very good. I could understand why he was highly touted as a prospect, but there's a reason why this guy has a lower career PPG average than Marc Staal. He has all these tools, but has not put any of it together to become a top 3 D. The guy was getting scratched for Detroit this year. Think about that. Maybe the worst defense in the whole NHL he couldn't even keep a place on.
One of the criticisms Detroit fans had of this guy, and it wasn't just one or two fans, it was a lot of them, was that he has a pretty much non-exist hockey IQ, and I can see that. More games will give me a better idea, but I think I've seen a lot of it early on. In the first game, I think he threw two back passes in his own zone right into the slot that easily could've been goals. In the next game, he proceeded to do the same thing. And maybe some of these issues were system-related, but thats an example of what I mean. He also has incredibly high penalty minutes like every year. Unless he's a boxer, and I'm pretty sure he's not, why would a defenseman have such high penalty minutes? They are astronomically high like every single year.
Almost all of those things are decision making skills which are directly related to hockey IQ.
He's a bit of a hot head so I'd guess that a lot of those penalties are of an aggressive nature (His PIM totals arent that high BTW.) Throwing passes up the middle isn't in and of it self a bad thing (and I'm not even sure those things were passes, our D have a habit of just slapping the puck up the middle for no reason, Staal is the biggest culprit of this) but as others have said, when someone handles the puck more, they'll make more mistakes with it. I'll take the clean break outs with the occasional blunder over the 90% probability that you'll get a turn over, failed clear or hapless lob out of your own end that you'll get from others.
NickyFotiu
NYR 2024 Cup Champs!
- Sep 29, 2011
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I understand your thinking but I feel its a bit of an over generalization. If you said top 5 picks are gold I might agree. Maybe even the top 10. Are 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th round picks really gold? They are very simple to obtain so teams do not look at them as gold IMO.
TheGuarantee
Registered User
- Jul 1, 2016
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Saying McDonagh is a dumb player is a ridiculous notion considering he is a whole d pairing himself. Funny that you'd be the one to respond to that comment though.
Machinehead
GoAwayTrouba
Everyone was so wrapped up in the non goalie interference call in Carolina that we forget that McDonagh was literally staring off into the distance not sure where to be on that play.
One example of many. He's a talented player but hockey IQ is low on the list.
One example of many. He's a talented player but hockey IQ is low on the list.
Revel
Dark Sky Enthusiast
I don't see it, but would be interested in seeing the beanie pictures. It may be enough to sway me.
Revel
Dark Sky Enthusiast
Robbing Peter to pay Paul, despite our LHD depth. I'd prefer to deal from a different position of strength (forward) to get our RHD, if at all possible. Or we can just try and snag one from Europe or something...not that I'd know who'd be available and willing to cross the pond.
17futurecap
Registered User
I like certain parts of his game. This is a guy that needs the right coach on D. Buek really needs to grill in on the defense for playing soft.
Smith has that edge and the mobility to go along with it.
Smith is a guy that may pair well with Klein with a defined area of play and communication.
Nothing wrong with having a good Mimico boy on the team.
The turnovers are what gets me. Say the Ranger keep Klein and Smith on the third pair next year:
McD-Shatty
Skjei-Holden
Smith-Klein
Heed
Buyout G. Trade Staal.
Skjei & Holden make that possible cap wise. Say Smith is at $3.65, and Klein at $2.9. All of a sudden the Rangers don't look so bad with Shatty making $6.5.
That also let's the forwards stick around and give you more cap space for your 1-Year upgrades.
Smith has that edge and the mobility to go along with it.
Smith is a guy that may pair well with Klein with a defined area of play and communication.
Nothing wrong with having a good Mimico boy on the team.
The turnovers are what gets me. Say the Ranger keep Klein and Smith on the third pair next year:
McD-Shatty
Skjei-Holden
Smith-Klein
Heed
Buyout G. Trade Staal.
Skjei & Holden make that possible cap wise. Say Smith is at $3.65, and Klein at $2.9. All of a sudden the Rangers don't look so bad with Shatty making $6.5.
That also let's the forwards stick around and give you more cap space for your 1-Year upgrades.
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