CrosbyMalkin
Registered User
- Aug 7, 2005
- 6,700
- 1,722
Scratch JJ or limit him to 13 minutes a night and I think you can win the cup. If you didn't have Gudbranson, I'd be more confident in saying you could win with JJ. You just have to basically use him like Chicago in 2015 used their bottom pair D. Having JJ as a #6 who plays 10 minutes a night at ES and 3 minutes a night on the PK isn't going to kill you like losing a 1st for nothing would.
You do realize that Gudbranson was the only Pens player that was not a minus player in those 4 playoff games right? Also was nothing but fantastic in his 19 games with us after the trade as a plus 7 and looked really good to me. Gudbranson was a much better skater and transition player than I could of ever hoped for after hearing all the negative press. All the people that act like Pettersson carried him is nonsense. I keyed on Gudbranson specifically in his games with the Pens and he played very solid. I don’t care what he did with Vancouver in that system. I think Gudbranson was a good pick up and makes our team better not worse.
I think we are one good 2nd pairing LD away from having a top 10 defense. Dumoulin-Letang is one of the best top pairings in the NHL and I think Pettersson-Gudbranson is a top 10 3rd pairing. Schultz is a good 2nd pairing offensive defenseman so all we need to trade for either this summer or before the deadline is a veteran LD which I think will happen. JJ can fill the spot if needed until we can upgrade. Even if we do a rental bandaid like we did with Hainsey that worked for a Cup.