I simply disagree. You're basing things off of pre-head injury Okposo. His hands and feet have lost a step or two, and he doesn't make plays quick enough in this league. Too many pucks die on his stick.
I'm sorry, I don't even see a $3M winger at this point. He's simply a shell of a player that he once was. It's amazing how several big contracts to the bigger, slower UFAs have completely come back to bite teams.
And that's magnified when he's playing with centers that isn't strong offensively. I don't see
that much of a difference in his decision making or foot speed pre injury and post injury. He never was a guy that was quick, he always was slow at getting his wrist shot off. I think why people are now "realizing" a possible regression, is because he's being played in different roles that showcase these slower moments much more often. He should not be playing up high in the Umbrella on the PP2 and tasked as one of the decision makers on the line. He should be a slot guy or a guy down low around the crease (like he was used under Bylsma on the PP).
Don't get me wrong, I don't think we should be paying $6 million for a bottom 6 player, but we have no centers on this team that have shown consistently to be able to work with Okposo and his shortcomings, not to mention he's not a good fit on this team stylistically (quite honestly he wasn't a fit when he arrived when Tim went from heavy puck possession mindset to quicker dump and chase mindset). We have too many aging vets on the team that are in our bottom 6. I didn't really like the contract when it happened, but I saw him have some qualities that fit with a guy like ROR or Reinhart, which showed on the ice with ROR. So I wasn't too mad with Okposo. Now that we don't have that type of center, or even the quality of that guy anymore, he's pretty much useless on this roster.