I'm sorry but I'm laughing at all your comments.
The problem with Burns this year is the fact that no one helped him out in the forward position. He would have a lot more assists from the blueline if someone actually helped him out by helping to crash the net. Wanvig and Foy didn't do that and other than those two, they didn't have a real big, opposing forward that could camp out and collect the rebounds Burns put up.
His partner I believe was with Reirden, Giroux, or Traverse, I can't remember.
And I think ceber is wrong, I think he'll excel at the defensive position if they continue progressing him there. I mean the kid shot up from what? 5'10" to 6'5" the year before the draft? Let him get use to his body and let him play the position where he likes.
How can we say he is far better at forward than defense? Are you guys actually sitting down talking with the Wild coaches and watching all of his old game films and watching him play night in and night out? Or are you just saying that because of a few WJC games?
Burns was UNCOMFORTABLE at forward position. No matter how good you guys think he is, an uncomfortable player is never going to excel at a position he doesn't like.
Give Burns time on defense, let Lemaire teach him. Look at guys like Henry, Zyuzin, Kuba, and Mitchell for God's sake! They aren't the greatest defensemen in the world but Lemaire got stuff out of them!
And while we're throwing around stats...
Why doesn't Michalek play forward? He was a -10 in +/-. Hell why was he even on the team last year?
Erskine was a -5...
Mikko Koivu was -1...So much for a two-way center...
Bouchard was a -2, so much for a offensive-center...
Seriously! Let the kid develop! Tell me any other 19 year old forward-turned-defenseman that did as well as he did last year? It's not the points on the board but how much the guy has developed in the season.