Chabot's skill has been on display since the juniors. Most dominant World Juniors performance by a Canadian defenseman. It's really not THAT surprising... it's just the fact that he's been able to do it in his 2nd season that makes it astonishing.
Disagreed on that front.
Agreed. Has room to improve in certain areas, but damn...he’s fun to watch.
I feel the same way. Chabot is currently 3rd in total shot attempts for, but 1st (by quite some margin) in shot attempts against. In fact all of Ottawas defensemen are in the top (as in most attempts against) 30 in Shot attempts against/60 for defensemen and four of them are in the top 8 (including Chabot). I'd worry a great deal about throwing money at Duchene based on this season. The only players that seem to have decent underlying stats are Stone and Tkachuk (both with somewhat high oiSh%, though). That said, Chabot compares favourably to the rest of the team. In any case Ottawa is in dire need of more structure in their game, bleeding shot attempts against like this isn't conducive to winning games, exciting though it may be.
If people are considering Rielly a star franchise D then I think by the end of the year if he keeps it up (which I think he will) you can call Chabot the same thing.
Rielly was already a #1 before this season, scoring a lot and defending ok in tough minutes. Just didn’t have much luck in the way of secondary assists and Leafs didn’t stack the PP so didnt get as much recognition.
Most young defenders production can be highly volatile and they struggle with consistency. Just look at how often the opinions of the 2015 defenders change. 2016-17 it was Werenski, last year it was Provorov, this year its Chabot. I'd say he would need to sustain this for the entire year, and then start off next year at a high-level.
You can't deny they're a pure run and gun offensive system. They are 2nd or 3rd in goals for and dead last by a mile in goals against. The system helps his stats without question. That being said, the kid doesn't play with as much help as guys like Rielly, Carlson, Ghost, Klingberg etc so it balances out imo. While he's not great defensively he's certainly not a liability. If he keeps up his current play and doesn't improve at all he's a borderline top 10-15 defensemen in the league... that's a scary thought. Sky is the limit for the kid and I'm readily admitting I was wrong about him as a prospect.... in my defense who could have saw this coming? You're a liar if claim it
