Dotter
THE ATHLETIC IS GARBAGE
What? He's at least a #3. And I'd say he's be about the perfect guy to pair with kronner, DDK, or any good LHD. He is great at moving the puck and was relatively cheap in FA.
After looking at it, he was a steal in FA at a $4.5 cap hit. He might be the most underrated dman in the league.
beyond ridiculous. based on what is he nice #4 or #5? green fits that much better than strålman.
i see no argument for him not being top pairing defenseman and i maintain he's been better than kronwall since 2014.
name 120 dman who are at least as good as him. heck, name 90.
there are only 2 dman (who were partners) since 2012 who have better goal differential than him and have played top4/top pair role. on shot differential, he's been even better, the best actually. best relative shot differential since 2012. if that guy is decent #4 or #5, we have maybe 2 NHL defenseman.
I wonder if that's because holland compared him to kindl? Not his finest hour, for sure.
strålman would be our best defenseman and would've been so for last year too.
To me, it doesn't matter if Stralman is a #4 or the next Lidstrom, he was never coming to Detroit regardless.
We can get all up in arms about it. We can talk about it til we are blue in the face. We can stomp our feet and cry like children... but the facts remain the same. Stralman, regardless of anything holy, was not ever coming to Detroit.
Stralman apparently had no interest in coming to Detroit. I'd also add that I don't think he's better than Kronwall now or at any time in the past, but he'd definitely be a good #2.
PD knows.