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Player Discussion Brett Kulak: Top pairing candidate #6

Adriatic

Adriatic

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Feb 27, 2004
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Love the way Kulak has been playing so far. He was in a tough situation in Calgary..they are so deep at LD. Being a 3rd ld with the Flames doesn't necessarily mean you are a bottom pairing defenseman. So far so good, hopefully he can continue his good play.
 
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Walrus26

Walrus26

Wearing a Habs Toque in England.
May 24, 2018
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In over his head, but trying his best to get his head nearer the first-pairing-level waterline. Perhaps he's a really good pupil for Weber to have under his wing at training as well as in games?
 
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BLONG7

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Oct 30, 2002
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Got to give him credit, they have thrown him to the wolves, and so far he has been pretty decent. We will be a couple of more years rebuilding this defense that Bergevin has given us...we will move forward, but let's get rid of Benn/Schlemko duo...
 
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26Mats

26Mats

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Jun 23, 2018
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habsfan891 said:
He looks good so far but I would be shocked if he sticks at #1 left defenseman long term
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By long term do you mean past the end of this season? Or do you think he won't make it to the end of this season as the #1.

imo, I'd still like to see if Mike Reilly can benefit from playing with Weber. Weber is more steady than Petry. And Kuluk has been more steady than Rielly. Better to have a more stable dman paired with a more high risk dman, than have two high risk dmen paired together.
 
Spearmint Rhino

Spearmint Rhino

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Weber is obviously a hard guy to play with to go through so many quality D partners, that's a big body for the other guy to have to carry :sarcasm:
 
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Le Barron de HF

Le Barron de HF

Justin make me proud
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Domenic said:
He’s a good player. Calgary didn’t waive him because he was bad; he was just behind Valimaki and Stone. He’s not a first-pairing D, but I can see him handling the job this season.
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To be fair, it's not the first time he's been waived, they did so in the summer a few years back to when he was going into arbitration (to help their case that he wasn't that valuable). He's not a bad player, he won't move the needle for your team but when it comes to Ds, that's not a bad thing. I prefer him to Schlemko all things considered.
 
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Agalloch

Agalloch

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habsfan891

habsfan891

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26Mats said:
By long term do you mean past the end of this season? Or do you think he won't make it to the end of this season as the #1.

imo, I'd still like to see if Mike Reilly can benefit from playing with Weber. Weber is more steady than Petry. And Kuluk has been more steady than Rielly. Better to have a more stable dman paired with a more high risk dman, than have two high risk dmen paired together.
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I don't think he makes the end of the season as the #1 personally
 
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Habs

Habs

We should have drafted Michkov
Feb 28, 2002
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But I thought Weber sucks? How hard could it be to match up someone to him? :sarcasm:

Kulak has looked great, far less mistakes than Benn/Schlemko and to be honest Petry as of late.
 
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26Mats

26Mats

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habsfan891 said:
I don't think he makes the end of the season as the #1 personally
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Last night wasn't a good game for Kulak in the parts I saw (but I didn't see the whole game).

Do you think Reilly will emerge as the best option? I'd like to see what he can do playing with a steady presence like Weber.

I also think it's time for one of Weber, Petry, and Juulsen to suck it up and play the left side. In particular I'd love to see Weber on the right side - and open for his one timer all night.
 
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habsfan891

habsfan891

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26Mats said:
Last night wasn't a good game for Kulak in the parts I saw (but I didn't see the whole game).

Do you think Reilly will emerge as the best option? I'd like to see what he can do playing with a steady presence like Weber.

I also think it's time for one of Weber, Petry, and Juulsen to suck it up and play the left side. In particular I'd love to see Weber on the right side - and open for his one timer all night.
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I think we'll see MB make a trade of futures for the best option but maybe that's just my pessimism talking.
 
417

417

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I've really liked Kulak...he's sure handed with the puck in his zone, he retrieves it efficiently and moves it efficiently.

No hesitation like Benn or Schlemko...no weak first pass like Benn.

He's obviously not a top pairing guy, but he's good for now because he's brought the stability on that side that CJ has been looking for.
 
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L4br3cqu3

L4br3cqu3

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26Mats said:
Last night wasn't a good game for Kulak in the parts I saw (but I didn't see the whole game).

Do you think Reilly will emerge as the best option? I'd like to see what he can do playing with a steady presence like Weber.

I also think it's time for one of Weber, Petry, and Juulsen to suck it up and play the left side. In particular I'd love to see Weber on the right side - and open for his one timer all night.
Click to expand...

And I thought Kulak had a pretty good game, defensively he was a rock, and physical, didn't create that much offensively though...

But all of them are RD, you can't change your instincts just like that, especially in Weber's case. Juulsen on the 3rd pair is perfectly fine this season, he turned 21 only a couple months ago...
 
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Pompeius Magnus

Pompeius Magnus

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I've been very pleasantly surprised so far. He's got decent size, mobility and pretty much everything else at a decent level. He's not the spectacular type or anything remotely close to it but playing with Weber you do want a guy that can keep it simple over 25+ minutes every night. Not saying he's the long term solution or anything but he can keep being a stopgap for now in my book. He's still only 24 so some upward mobility is still possible.
 
26Mats

26Mats

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habsfan891 said:
I think we'll see MB make a trade of futures for the best option but maybe that's just my pessimism talking.
Click to expand...

We'll my question was, assuming there is no trade, what is your opinion...

But, although I'm no Bergevin supporter, he doesn't like to trade 1sts. I could see him moving the 2nd we got in the Pacioretty deal. And, I liked what he did when he got Petry and Vanek. I'm convinced in both cases he only made the deals because their value was low compared to what they bring AND he only planned to give up the 2nd because he wanted to resign them. In Vanek's case it just wasn't a fit so, and had in fact slowed down, so Bergevin wasn't going to try to outbid Minnesota.

Getting Petry, Vanek, and Radulov were great ways to add high quality players cheap. It's too bad he botched the Radulov negotiations, and Vanek both wanted to go home and still had a market value way above his diminished abilities at the time. But I still would have liked to have had Vanek back at a reasonable salary, but under those circumstances it wasn't happening. Without him I don't think me make it to the conference finals. And, without Price's injury, who knows what would have happened.
 
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