Why do you ignore stuff that you don't like? Babcock absolutely deserves credit for developing Rielly, especially seeing as this is his 5th season coaching him . The 2 seasons before him, is hardly enough development time to give zero credit to the coach, Rielly didn't become a stud in spite of the coach. Like i mentioned before, it was Babcock who played him as a #1 defensemen immediately upon arrival and he's only gotten better every season under his guidance. I'm not even a big fan of the guy, but to completely ignore his influence on Rielly because you dislike the coach, is incredibly ignorant . Just because you say the same thing over and over again, doesn't actually make it true.
I don't know how you have replied 3 or 4 times now and are still missing the entire argument lol. I'll see if I can help you read:
Rielly was an
ESTABLISHED TOP 4 DEFENSEMAN FOR 2 YEARS STRAIGHT when Babcock arrived. Babcock helped him polish his game, no arguments there.
Babcock does not know what to do with
ROOKIE DEFENSEMEN (read:
NOT AN ESTABLISHED TOP-4 DEFENSEMAN). He's too afraid to play them in real minutes and they end up stagnating playing 10 minutes a night on the 3rd pairing afraid to make mistakes. Dermott has not gotten any better under Babcock over the 3 years he's been ready to play NHL minutes. He went from being an elite all-situations AHL #1D to being the most sheltered defenseman in the league for 2 years straight. He has hardly had any opportunity to grow his game because he is not being challenged playing easy minutes against 4th liners. When he comes back healthy this year, what do you think is going to happen? Babcock isn't going to give him any of Rielly or Muzzin's minutes on the left side since he doesn't trust Dermott yet. He doesn't trust Dermott because he doesn't have experience playing against top competition. He doesn't have experience playing against top competition because Babcock doesn't trust him.
Some of us don't want this to happen to Sandin during his critical development years. He's better off in the AHL than getting a shift once every 10 minutes.
No top defenseman has ever developed from playing a full season of the type of usage Sandin and Dermott have gotten as rookies. Not one. They need to be allowed to play their game, try to dominate, and be allowed to make mistakes without getting benched over them.