Peat
Registered User
- Jun 14, 2016
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I think it's safe to assume that the Penguins are planning on their defense being Dumoulin-Letang, MP-Marino and POJ with a RD. I don't know who that RD would be, they don't really have any RD prospects coming up that I think would fit there (I think Gudbranson would have been a great fit there, but whatever). I think Rielly is their only RD prospect too. POJ is in the same mold as Pettersson (lanky 2-way D that skates well and has a good outlet pass), so you probably need a similar complement for POJ as you would need for Pettersson.
I certainly don't miss Gudbranson because he had an ass contract, but someone exactly like Gudbranson would be a welcome addition for that bottom pair. Gudbranson actually had a fairly solid season with the Ducks this year, with being basically fine at ES and being great on the PK in terms of analytics while playing 20 minutes a night against 2nd pair competition. In hindsight, it may have been smarter to move Marino or Schultz to LD for a year and trade JJ instead of moving Gudbranson.
The 20/20 hindsight move would have been to move Schultz and keep Gudbranson. We'd have got the exact same results at worst and have a lot more assets to play around with. Cap space problems would look tighter next season mind.
That's really 20/20 mind.