We aren't even bottom five. That, along with him not being the 7/8 does change a lot about your comment.
How? Our defensemen can't move the puck, minus Green. They're positionally bad. The team is in the bottom 10 in GA, and generally has had better goaltending (unhappiness with Mrazek notwithstanding) than most of those teams (Calgary for most of the season, St. Louis, Winnipeg, Philly and Dallas have all had significantly worse goaltending, just to start with). I'm not sure there's a team who's defense I'd less rather have. Colorado and Arizona, maybe?
Is it your opinion that all of the complaints over the last few seasons about our defense were 'careless hyperbole' and that it's actually a decent unit? I'm not aware of a single measure, statistical or 'eye'-based, that would back that up.
Additionally, Smith hasn't played a game in GR (that I could find evidence of) since 2013. In the meantime, he played 63 games last season, and 24 this season. In 2015/16, he only had one 'injury', an
illness in November that cause him to miss ~10 days, in total. The other players who missed nearly as many games actually had injuries. I couldn't find a stat that showed the specific scratch log, but he's the only guy who was on the roster that much and missed that much time without injury. Additionally, the only regular defender he out-TOI'd was Marchenko. Even when he played, he played less than nearly everyone else.
I will say that I somehow missed his injury time this season when I was counting, which is surprising because I found it immediately when I looked just now. Given his time out, it's hard to say how the scratches and press box time would've come down, but suggesting that he would have more would be conjecture. Mea culpa.
Moreover, I was going to post examples of the defenseman who landed decent picks at the deadline who were, themselves, average players, but the options were overwhelming.
Cool, how many of those players were trashed by their own fan base constantly and repeatedly, until it came down to trade time, when suddenly they were worth the moon?
Lastly, I don't give a **** about Smith. And if he lands a 3rd or 4th or 5th or 7th? Great. What I do give a **** about is people making careless, hyperbolic, fictitious claims about how bad a player is.
And I don't particularly go for the ludicrous hypocritical back-and-forth on guys like Smith. I liked Smith. I think Smith was a contributor and one of the only guys with any backbone in the playoffs last year. That was a distinctly minority opinion (and I don't just mean on this board). If Brendan Smith was so bad last year, he hasn't really done anything this year to improve that stock.
[quoet]It adds nothing to discussion when you want to make Brendan Smith (or any other player) out to be the worst of the worst when he flat-out isn't. He is an average-minded depth defenseman who skates very well, fits in on the bottom-pairing, brings physicality when necessary and has an extra gear for the playoffs which is about the only time he plays consistent hockey.[/quote]
I look forward to seeing this opinion widely restated in any and all future Smith conversations.
And I don't see any homerism here. People know Smith is a flawed NHLer. The fact remains that NHL GMs trade for flawed NHLers time and time again when it comes to depth for the playoffs when the price is right.
People think Smith is trash and should be cut until they start thinking about the shiny draft picks we can get for him. People think our defense is trash until they want to sell it. That's homerism.
Like Smith is some blue chipper who is going to bring a massive return? Who cares... how about something that might actually move the needle?
