The Tyler Arnason Trophy: Avs LVP

[Freudian]

I have a hard time pointing fingers at Tanguay. The chance of him being really bad towards the end of the contract was just the cost of making O'Brien and Jones go away. It's more on Roy that played him, and I looked it up, 16 minutes a game.

But yes, he kinda stunk. Too bad.

 

[ASmileyFace]

Either John Mitchell or Tanguay.

I'm leaning towards Tanguay personally.

 

[ABasin]

I think that was one of those seasons where we may not really be able to give out a single LVP. I'd just give it to the team and move on.

 

[Tweaky]

Actually, it's the opposite. He gets so much undeserved defending.

If he played defense as good as people here defend him, he wouldn't need to be defended at all.



He should be in the AHL. No, he would not look fine on the 3rd pair. He would be the new Redmond/Bodnarchuck.



The fact that this can even be an argument just shows how godawful our D is. "Yeah he sucks but he's slightly less sucky then these other sucks" we need help back there so badly.



No way, he's one of the few players who were actually good more than not. Payed within his limits, worked hard, did everything a 4th liner should do and then some.

You are entitled to your opinion, however wrong it may be. Holden has better possession numbers 5v5 than any other D with over 40 games as an Av this season, despite more D zone starts than all but FB and EJ. And was the only D with that many games to not be minus. All while playing way more minutes than he should, against much tougher competition than he should be seeing. So tell me again how your observational bias leads you to believe that he is AHL quality. There is no doubt that he made mistakes, many of them. But he did not make so many that that were so bad that he should be waived. Barrie made just as many...but he is flashy and scores, so we ignore it. Trade Holden, sure. Play him half as much, yes. But to have him waived (and claimed)...no. We cannot be that bad at asset management anymore. He should be the one babysitting Bigras next year, with Zadorov up with EJ and FB with Barrie.

Just curious, how would you propose bringing in 3 defenders better than Holden this offseason?

I am not an Holden apologist. I am a realist. He was bad, but more due to usage than skill. Use him right, and he will not drag the team down. Might be overpaid for that role, but that is a whole other can of worms.

And honestly, that could be said of the whole team. Everyone is a slot or two higher than they should be. Add a true #1 at each position, everyone else slots in where they ought to be.

 

[Pokecheque]

TBH McLeod and Malkin didn't bother me all that much in a 4th line role. In fact IMHO that was one of the very few things the team did right this year--put out a 4th line in McLeod/Mitchell/Skille that wasn't an abhorrent liability like the previous two seasons. But of course any increased role for any of those guys was usually a mistake.

My vote is for Holden. Yes, he wasn't horrible all the time, and better than we had any right to expect him to be, but for him to hold down a top-four role the entire frickin' season was about the most damning aspect of this very, very frustrating season.

If I could vote anyone I too, would probably vote Roy.

 

[CobraAcesS]

TBH McLeod and Malkin didn't bother me all that much in a 4th line role. In fact IMHO that was one of the very few things the team did right this year--put out a 4th line in McLeod/Mitchell/Skille that wasn't an abhorrent liability like the previous two seasons. But of course any increased role for any of those guys was usually a mistake.

My vote is for Holden. Yes, he wasn't horrible all the time, and better than we had any right to expect him to be, but for him to hold down a top-four role the entire frickin' season was about the most damning aspect of this very, very frustrating season.

If I could vote anyone I too, would probably vote Roy.

Yeah, Roy's personnel choices were mind boggling and inconsistent at times. About the only thing you can give him credit for this year is Grigorenko, and even then you can easily argue that if Roy had just stuck him at LW and left him there he'd have likely been in the same place with more points on the year. Keep in mind I said argue, he may have floundered as well.

Both Roy and Sakic need to be slapped for thinking they were getting a current top four defender in Zadorov. They had absolutely no plan for that spot outside of Zadorov, Gormley, Holden. Which points to special needs when it comes to learning how to evaluate talent.