I agree, he's looked like one of the best players in Tampa. Not as good as he was in 11-12 but closer to that than what he was last year. Looks like he's going to have his second best year of his career, if one makes early prediction based on three games.
The question with Filppula was would he ever show that consistency here? I used to support Filppula, his talent was supremely evident a lot of nights, but he just needed a fresh start.
Part of looking at all these guys is what they would have provided in a Wings jersey. Hudler and Filppula had plenty of opportunities to get a contract, really we all like to make fun of Holland and Babcock for their loyalty, but these guys played themselves out of Detroit. They have gone to worse teams where ice time and production is to be expected. I have always compared Hudler to Kozlov, thought he would play well on a bottom feeder and put up some good numbers, so he isn't surprising me in Calgary. Filppula should be fine in Tampa, I hope he takes advantage of his fresh start, but he isn't a better player than Weiss.
The Brunner situation is unfortunate, they offered him the exact deal he signed, he thought he could get more and didn't. Instead of twiddling their thumbs, they got aggressive and went out and got a skilled veteran that answers a couple of questions on this team with a good playoff track record, heavier game and far superior two-way play albeit at a substantial premium given the name attachment.
Brunner was going to score goals in this league we knew that, what I have noticed in the first couple of Devils games, is he is getting played lower either on the point or half wall exchanging and getting in deeper which should help him scoring goals on NJ PP unit. He also started well last year, so this should be a good litmus test if he is going to be a streaky player or if he really just tired out adjusting to all that hockey last year for the first time in his life. But DeBoer is putting him areas where he can be most successful on offense, deploying him in a way to maximize that, would Babcock really have done that? By the way his defense is still pretty awful and his board play has been just as brutal as we all remember, a nice highlight of it in the GWG that came at his expense the last time out.
Really the big issue is what would they have done here though? You can play hindsight or look for anything to needle at this angle to be more discontent with Wings management. But how these guys produce in other organizations can have very little to do with what we should have expected if they had continued here with our system and coaching staff.
Hardly anybody wants Cleary, Sammy or Bert here, but these guys don't change that reality, that is generously changing the narrative to hammer home a point. I expect to see it especially if Brunner keeps it up, but they offered him a fair deal and he rejected the same deal he signed. They moved on. If I had any faith they would actually promote the kids and give them opportunities you could also point out it was better for the long-term goals of the franchise, but they have to promote Nyquist and Tatar, along with getting Jurco ready for the show for that point to really be the case. Still hoping they come to that realization, but that needed to happen regardless and the hope is shortly having pushed these guys out the door that is the direction it will head in.