As for Stecher ... he's looked good next to Edler, which is great but not really realistic because that's not who he'll be playing with on opening day.
Need to see if he can form a solid pairing with Tryamkin or some such, which is something else entirely.
Absolutely this.
It's nice that they've put Stecher in a great position to succeed alongside a quality top-pairing defenceman...and they've looked pretty good together. But if you're going to have Stecher making the opening night roster on "merit"...i'd really like to see that he can replicate success with someone who is
not Edler.
Even if Stecher were to make the roster based on that audition away from Edler, only to end up back with Edler for the real games anyway...i'd like to see it, know what we have, and know that there's a bit of flexibility there if needed.
I'd be curious to see how say...Larsen or even Gudbranson would've looked, had they spent the entire preseason tied at the hip to Edler.
With Stecher, if he's going to make the opening roster...that has a few collateral consequences.
1)It means we've waiving and risking a loss of depth somewhere else (be that Biega/Pedan/Tryamkin back to Russia).
2)Like McCann who looked great through the preseason and early regular season last year and then faded hard...Stecher is still very physically small. He's a bit older and more experienced which helps, but small and coming out of an NCAA schedule it's still a major ??? whether he'll be able to fully hold up physically over the long haul of an NHL schedule.
3)It means Larsen becomes kind of an odd man out. They're not going to dress both.
So if you're going to keep Stecher...you have to be
really really sure this is the right call. And i just don't know how you can confidently make that choice without seeing how he does
without Edler helping to carry him along.
Nothing would be better for his team than if we could break up Edler-Tanev imo.
Hutton-Gudbranson - shut down pair, vs top lines
Sbisa-Tanev shut down pair #2 vs teams 2nd lines
Edler-Stecher - backs the Sedins, and 1st unit PP
The problem with this, is that you have to ask yourself if Hutton-Gudbranson is actually going to be a more effective shutdown pair than Edler-Tanev. I don't think it's a great use of Hutton as our best offensive D at this point in time, and i think the answer is probably no overall.
The only way you can really offset that, is if playing with Tanev were to magically transform Sbisa into a top matchup guy who can do more than just line up against 2nd lines. And if that were to be the case (unlikely), you'd think it wise to at least give that a decent trial run to take a look in the preseason, before diving in head first.
Otherwise, i have no idea how you get Tanev the minutes he
should be playing. Tanev isn't going to make up minutes over Sbisa on the PK (his relative strong suit)...and i don't want to see Tanev anywhere near the PP where other defencemen can make up suitable minutes. There's just nowhere to make up the differential from the 20+ minutes Tanev should get, vs the minutes Sbisa should be playing.
So you're really "wasting" Tanev there.
And same goes for Stecher playing the sort of #1 minutes Edler should be playing for us. Edler can play PK to eat into that differential a little bit, but not nearly enough to make it work.
The only solution would be to rotate Tanev into extra shifts with Edler. But that's a dangerous proposition at the best of times. Not only is this team already a trainwreck when it comes to line changes...but with Edler's potential for volatility, it just seems like a ticking timebomb jerking around his partner and chemistry every couple shifts like that. Edler thrives on stability and playing within a built up comfort zone with a steady partner.
I get the point you've made, that this team's defence was incredibly dysfunctional and unable to score last year. But that Edler-Tanev pairing, while not dynamite offensively...was the one thing that actually worked on our blueline last year. They eat up tons of the most unpleasant minutes every night with generally good results overall.
We also now have a Hutton-Gudbranson duo who looked really promising in the games they played. A duo who can hopefully shoulder
some of the tough minutes burden without becoming a full-fledged "shutdown pairing". That alone could help to "rejuvenate" Edler by easing off the hard minutes slightly.
As well, whether it's Stecher or Larsen, ultimately...having a quality RHS partner on the PP blueline should help breathe some life back into Edler's PP play...which is where the biggest real drop-off in his production has come from in the first place.