You could be right, but he will face one on ones in the NHL just like he does in Utica and he has been walked on many occasions like a highway directional cone. The forwards at the NHL level are more skilled and faster.
He will have to make passes under supreme duress where he has choked on many occasions and flipped weak passes into nowhere or made the blind backhand pass hoping he had a mate in the vicinity only to find out he passed the puck directly to an opponent. He has also passed the puck to a mate covered like a blanket and left that guy to deal with the pressure. The NHL forecheckers are faster, harder hitting, and better at cutting off passing lanes. He is weak at the net front and abandons his D-spot too soon in order to get up ice on the attack, which has left him somewhere out above the circle to the blueline when the opponent has the puck back down low working to score against one less D-man.
Someone is always bailing this guy out and a I wonder how long his +17 can last. His offesnsive numbers have allowed him to get halfway there and the efforts of others have saved his ass over and over again.
Not so sure this defensive style translates to 2-way D like Green will expect. He gave Subban free license to create as long as he carried out his own zone responsibilities first. That minimized his numbers, but he put up 36 points in both seasons under Green. Defensively he still proved to be a train wreck and was traded. Apparently the Ontario coach had tougher requirements greatly limiting his offense (8 Pts/36 GP) and Toronto was equally serious about the D first rule (18 Pts/48 GP).
Green, who was accused of stifling his offense, got a lot more production from him, but he was -5 and -12 his 2 years under Green. However, Ontario wasn't any more successful with him defensively, -9 while getting almost nothing from him offensively.The Marlies got his D under control, -1 and garnered a little more offense from him, but nothing special.
He is currently in the EBEL, the Austrian elite league, where he has 15 Pts in 38 GP and is a whopping -17.
Brogan Rafferty has offensive stats padded by his PP 1 numbers. He can move the puck up ice if he gets it in open space. He dose not elude opponents in his own end with slick moves on his skates accompanied by elite stick handling. Given enough open ice he can eventually elude opponents, but taking the puck into traffic at the blueline he loses it on most occasions. He's real good where he's good, but very weak where he isn't. It's those weak areas that require him to keep working in the AHL so he doesn't bomb out before he's ready or just gets pigeon holed into a lesser role than he might have reached if left alone to develop. So far Vancouver is following that recipe. My handling of him would keep it that way.
He dearly misses, as does the rest of this D-corps, a real, actual veteran D-man of proven NHL talent like Schenn or Huskins. These kids would be improving in their development daily with an on ice/bench advisor, mentor/coach, role model. It was insane to expect a bunch of kids to actually go a full season and not level off and then regress as the competition got stronger and stronger. We have seen them start out very weak, improve above that level, and then hit a wall. Now we are seeing them regress to many of the same bad habits it seemed they were getting past. I blame this on 2 things. 1) A lack of coaching ability to get certain required details across to these kids and then not holding them responsible for repeated errors. 2) The failure to sign a veteran leader to bring these kids along. You ant the kids to develop? Bring in the guy(s) who have a better chance of making that happen and you have to be willing to pay for it. It doesn't matter if the guy is on a 2-way. You don't even have to have him on an NHL contract. Give NHL money on an AHL contract and give him some term if that helps sign him. Crimey, they have given Bancks and Hamilton 2 successive 2-yr contracts. Wouldn't that money have been better spent signing a guy who can help get the D on top of their game? A top team gets built from the goal out. Vancouver slipped up big time by overlooking the middle part which I consider the most important piece. It doesn't matter how many goals you score if you allow the opponent to score more.
