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Confirmed Signing with Link: [MTL] Karl Alzner (5 Years, $4.6M AAV)

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hockeyheadlines

hockeyheadlines

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vanwest said:
Number 3 on the top 5 list of worst signings of the day according to Yahoo Sports.
I like Alzner and think he's been a warrior. But injuries look to have caught up with him. This deal has buyout candidate written all over it. I also think he's a poor fit in Montreal as they need to become more mobile on their back end.
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:laugh:
 
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hockeyheadlines

hockeyheadlines

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hockeykicker said:
27jun2017-alzner-11.jpg




27jun2017-alzner-3-history.jpg



27jun2017-alzner-2-habs.jpg





https://cerebralpuck.com/2017/06/27/free-agent-primer-caps-smart-to-move-on-from-alzner/amp/
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There's a guy just like you in Arizona...
 
Dr John Carlson

Dr John Carlson

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Most Caps fans will tell you that this past year, Alzner failed both the analytics test as well as the eye test. This isn't a case of statistics overload.
 
Fazkovsky

Fazkovsky

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Sep 4, 2013
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Machinehead said:
And I guess nobody is going to tell me why Alzner is good.

I'm still waiting.
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yeah and that tweet with all the stats weren't enough? You bring up the shot attempts argument.

Believe me, if we didn't have Carey Price, all our dmen would be buyouts this summer. You have absolutely no idea how good Price makes our defencemen look. We get outplayed basically every game. We will be spending more time in our zone then the reverse, once why we need Karl Alzner. From the stats he can make a good first pass and that's well enough.

When you have Ovechkin not even backing up on defence, you will get a lot of shot attempts. The caps don't have many two way forwards even none? Tell me if Kuznetsov and Backstrom and Burakovsky, marcus johansson have won the selke?

Anybody that watches the habs know that Price makes the defence look good and the defence ISN'T doing their job. Even Markov, who is known to be decent in his zone is making more and more mistakes and is more often behind the play.

Nor is the offence that's MB's responsibility to fix.
 
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Langway

Langway

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Jul 7, 2006
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hockeyheadlines said:
No, a guy who has an obsession with stats. You can't quantify everything.
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But you can quantify that Alzner spends more time in his own end when he's on the ice and it's not just a matter of deployment. Even when his role changed last year he still lagged behind everyone else from a possession standpoint. Some of that could have been him playing with Carlson, who also wasn't healthy, but it's been a downward trend. Alzner exemplifies the 'bend but don't break' style of positional defensive defenseman. It's fine while it works but you don't want to be holding the bag when it doesn't. Best case maybe the Habs can get him to evolve his game a bit in combination with a different system so that his defects don't show up as regularly. I'm not sure they have the centers for that to happen, though, and he's also a soon-to-be 29 year old and most likely is what he is at this point (and perhaps only going to get worse).

He's a warrior and there's no question he'll sacrifice for the team to block shots. His contract isn't completely outrageous but possession is an important component in defending that Alzner does nothing to help a team with. He blocks a ton of shots because he's so often in situations to do so. He's really not that different than Josh Gorges a few years ago. Alzner is better but that gap seems to be shrinking and the slower he becomes the more passive he's likely to play to compensate for it.
 
4thTierSport

4thTierSport

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I don't understand this at all. I love Alzner but he is not what MTL needs at this point. MTL just doubling down on a poor plan that keeps sinking further down.
 
bossram

bossram

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LetsGoBears said:
I don't understand this at all. I love Alzner but he is not what MTL needs at this point. MTL just doubling down on a poor plan that keeps sinking further down.
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Agreed.

I don't think Alzner is terrible. He's an NHL defenseman, who is probably fine on a 3rd pair or spot-duty in the top-four. But they've paid a massive amount into a defenseman they just don't need.

MTL desperately needs mobility and puck-moving from the blueline. They traded Bealieu. Markov might not be back. They added a guy who's more of a "glass 'n out" player. Probably not what they need.
 
Harry Kakalovich

Harry Kakalovich

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Sep 26, 2002
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I used to really like Alzner. Apparently his play has diminished but if the Habs are getting the guy I watched not too long ago I think it's a solid deal. If he's washed up well ... obviously that would be bad. But he seems young to be washed up.
 
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