Faulk is overrated by HF as a whole, but quite underrated elsewhere (Bob Stauffer, USA Hockey, etc.) My take on it is that if he’s producing, he’s a lower-end to mid-tier 1D. If he’s not, he’s a solid, complimentary top-pairing guy.
Offensively, Faulk makes a good first pass and rushes the puck up the ice with authority, but he doesn’t have great vision in the offensive zone. His shot sets up his offensive game. It’s the same thing with Shea Weber. Faulk has run into some issues recently with his goal scoring. Around this time last year, we thought he was in the midst of a goal scoring breakout; he had a massive PPG outburst from Oct.-Dec. 15. After that point, his goal scoring on the PP dried up. From my vantage point, I think that teams have caught on to what Carolina’s trying to do with the man advantage. Give the puck to Faulk and let him shoot. The Canes don’t really have a threat to score from outside the high danger zone, aside from Faulk. PKers shade over to his side, lay-out and take away the shooting lane for his slap shot. To Faulk’s credit, he doesn’t try to shoot through them, but instead, tries to shoot around them with a wrist shot looking for deflections and/or rebounds. He’s not going to score a lot of goals with those low percentage shots, though.
Defensively, I don’t think his +/- matches up with his actual defensive ability. It’s weird. He’s on the ice for a lot of goals, but he’s not this albatross defensively (most of the time.) I view him as having above average defensive acumen. Faulk makes good, aggressive reads at the line and in the neutral zone. He has really good hand-eye and an active stick, which allows him to break up a lot passes, often in mid-air, and disrupt the flow of the attack. In the actual defensive zone, he’s solid. Nothing really stands out.
Anyway, the reason I said most of the time in parenthesis is because Faulk does have an issue with consistency. He has games and sometimes stretches of games in which he’s noticeably bad defensively. I’d like to blame the injury Brad Malone caused in practice last season, but this has been an issue I’ve noticed going all the way back to his days paired with Sekera.
Ideally, the Canes address the need for a forward in a different way (i.e. getting lucky with the lottery.) It’s probably a pipe dream, unfortunately. So, there may be a trade coming in the future. I’m not sure Faulk is the guy to go. His shot is a unique asset; if they can put some talent around him maybe that would create more lanes for him to use it. Additionally, Carolina right now has a nice balance of handedness on the backend. Of the notable defensive prospects in the pipeline, 2 are left-handed (Fleury and Bean) and only 1 is right-handed (McKeown). It may make more sense to move a LHS than a RHS for the purpose of maintaining that balance.
Thanks for the post
EJ does have similar issues, but is usually better defensively, while not as dynamic offensively. Hes been making a ton of glaring mistakes this season as well. But it feels like hes trying to push a lot harder to create offensively.
My guy. I don't post often. But I go to Ohio State. I'm an east coast kid. No I don't watch the Canes everyday. I watch a ton of CBJ and Avs games tho. But I have seen Faulk play live twice in person and at least double digit times in the last two years. Didn't leave me thinking "Jesus, wish he was an Av/BJ" not once.
I'm sorry if my opinion offends you. But to me I see a guy with a solid shot and one of the better PPQBs in the NHL. But he plays more minutes than I feel he can handle and I think he's more suited to be a #2 with a Vlasic/Suter type partner.
I'm not the only person who feels that way. I mean team USA just picked Jack ****ing Johnson over him. Even EJ for that matter. Good or bad decision aside. I'm clearly not the only person to see it that way.
Duchene goes. A true or potential #1 has to be coming back. I mean on a cup caliber team. My opinion is EJ isn't good enough to lead a blue line on an elite team. But he can be the Vlasic 1B type with a great partner. That's the same way I look at Faulk. And maybe Hanifin becomes that guy for Carolina and Hanifin/Faulk becomes Burns/Vlasic-esque.
Again no offense. But I only said something because. I wouldn't be happy with Faulk as a return and more importantly because someone put him in the same breath as OEL.
That makes more sense, thanks for explaining your POV
I should definitely back off some of this stuff sometimes, but sometimes frustration gets the better of me.
