Player Discussion Troy Stecher, Pt. II

[DL44]

You cut off the "on the PK" finish to the second quote. Stecher has played all of 2:12 on the PK this season so I have no idea what Travis thinks he's learned from watching Stecher in that tiny bit of time, that compels him to nail Stecher to the bench. There is ample statistical evidence that Stecher has been a better penalty killer than Myers over the past three seasons, by a fairly wide margin.

Myers' advantages over Stecher are in the offensive zone where he is clearly superior; a better passer and a much better shooter. In the neutral zone and defensive zone, he is not better than Stecher.

Probably likes what he's seen outta the 10+ mins of time he's seen Myers play.

I don't know... Myers reach has been pretty disruptive. I think it's been pretty obvious he's the more difficult dman to play against. Myers hasn't given you anything to complain about on the PK. And it's the number 1 PK in the league with Myers on the 2nd unit. Stecher not getting PK time doesn't seem like anything to worry about.

Again.. I don't think it's that Stecher has been a problem... it's that we have better looking options now that have been effective. If a particular unit starts leaking PK goals... then you have Stecher. Also, Stecher will gets some PK looks every time one of 23, 57, 4 or 8 are in the box.

 

[VanJack]

Green just seems to pick and choose 'his guys'....and if you're on the outside looking in, you're on a very short leash. Last night Beagle was a -3 and Schaller turned the puck over at least three times that I counted, including a stumble at the blueline that led to a 2 on 1 against.

If this was Goldy or Gaudette they'd be dispatched to the press-box forthwith. But you can guarantee both Beagle and Schaller will be in the lineup tomorrow.

For whatever reason, Green just doesn't have faith in Stecher. So 10 minutes a night will be the norm for him until another d-man or two goes down an injury.

 

[4Twenty]

For whatever reason, Green just doesn't have faith in Stecher. So 10 minutes a night will be the norm for him until another d-man or two goes down an injury.

To be fair, this years Stecher looks pretty bad out there so far, especially comparing him to his performances down the stretch last year. His puck moving is Sbisa level at this stage, passes aren't flat or receivable. It's understandable, because he's getting 4 or 5 shifts a period, if that.

 

[Intangibos]

Stetcher just doesn't look the same without Hutton

 

[VanJack]

Stetcher just doesn't look the same without Hutton

Lol...never thought of this....Hutton might have flunked the 'eye-test' but was actually carrying Stecher most nights? Unimaginably depressing. Actually, I thought Stecher was reasonable when paired with Edler for a brief period of time last season.

But as other posters have pointed out, than was 'then, this is 'now'....and Stecher seems to be struggling with his confidence right now.

 

[Hit the post]

Lol...never thought of this....Hutton might have flunked the 'eye-test' but was actually carrying Stecher most nights? Unimaginably depressing. .

As the overused cliche' goes, I still maintain "the whole was greater than the sum of the parts". Hutton & Stecher had chemistry together.

 

[Hoghandler]

Stecher's job could be at risk not because he's small, but because the team's improved depth on the right side puts him in jeopardy of not being a top 3 right side option. You have Brogan Rafferty turning heads in Utica, as well as the potential return of Tryamkin. Both those guys are legitimate threats to take Stecher's minutes.

Stecher needs to find his game, or he could find himself on the outside looking in. Rafferty is coming.

 

[4Twenty]

He seemed to like him plenty last season when he was playing him 25 minutes/game for the last couple months of the season.

It's like the whole organization over the summer just decided that no, actually Stecher is a fringe player we'll be dumping when his contract is up in 2020. And I suspect it's a 'need to get bigger on D like the BIG BLUES D' thing that pushed out Biega as well. I suspect that in Jimbo's dinosaur brain, 1 little defender playing regularly is the absolute maximum you can have.

One thing it will do is avoid the perceived Hutton situation of arbitration leverage if Stecher is here next summer ... but honestly it looks like the writing is kind of on the wall here for him so it won't get to that point.

Up until February last season, Stecher was 7th for Dmen in avg ice time per game. Playing behind Gudbranson. It's clear what Green prefers.

I think you're pretty well bang on with the rest of this post though, but I don't think Green liked him last year either, just the same as he didn't like Hutton. He was playing those guys out of neccessity. But they're certainly chasing the Blues big D model, which is hilarious to me because the team that took the Blues to the 7th game of the SCF had 4 defesman under 6 foot playing regular playoff minutes for them in McAvoy, Krug, Grzelcyk, and Connor Clifton. If you can play, you can play. Also kind of ironic, Bortuzzo retired because nobody would sign him and Edmundson was traded. It's like the Blues don't even buy into this narrative.

I'm pretty sure this didn't happen. I can't find any function for isolating those games and calculating Stecher's average ice time for them, but it looks like he played around 22-23 minutes a game. There are several games when he played less than 20.

Troy Stecher 2018-19 Game Log | Hockey-Reference.com

The big 25-30 minute games came when both Edler and Tanev were injured. Pouliot got over 20 minutes per game on occasion in that stretch.

Good grief, it's not hard to go to NHL.com and sort by date.

Troy Stecher averaged 24:01 from February 1st to the end of the season. Not hard to look at his game logs either, from February 9th to March 9th, he averaged 25:36 a game.

Imagine entering the discussion, adding nothing, and arguing the semantics of the difference between 24:01 and 25+

As noted above, Stecher averaged a bit over 24 minutes/game for the last 3 months of last season.

Is anyone shocked that bandwagon didn’t return and apologize for trying to make an issue about 1 min of ice time. Proved wrong and nowhere to be seen in this thread.

Not interested in discussing topics just minutia and semantics.

I’m glad everyone gets to see it for what it is.

 

[VanJack]

I can't decide if Stecher's play this season is a result of who he's playing with or if Benn is carrying that pair....it's hard to tell. But I notice Green had Stecher playing briefly with Edler in the Jersey game, a pairing that seemed to well together late last year.

But I agree with other posters. Stecher is the most vulnerable of any of their d-men as the team continues to try to improve their back-end. Rafferty appears to be everything Stecher isn't....he has decent size, plays a solid game in his own zone, but above all else, looks capable of generating some offense.

 

[vanuck]

Stecher absolutely should be getting more time on the PK instead of Edler or Myers. You don't want to ride Edler into the ground for one, and Myers isn't as good as Stecher as well.

 

[PuckMunchkin]

Probably likes what he's seen outta the 10+ mins of time he's seen Myers play.

I don't know... Myers reach has been pretty disruptive. I think it's been pretty obvious he's the more difficult dman to play against. Myers hasn't given you anything to complain about on the PK. And it's the number 1 PK in the league with Myers on the 2nd unit. Stecher not getting PK time doesn't seem like anything to worry about.

Again.. I don't think it's that Stecher has been a problem... it's that we have better looking options now that have been effective. If a particular unit starts leaking PK goals... then you have Stecher. Also, Stecher will gets some PK looks every time one of 23, 57, 4 or 8 are in the box.

I think it "feels" like he is the harder defender to play against because of his size.

And that the few pass breakups that he does make are very easy to notice.

 

[F A N]

Rafferty appears to be everything Stecher isn't....he has decent size, plays a solid game in his own zone, but above all else, looks capable of generating some offense.

Except for the fact that Stecher is a proven NHL Dman and Rafferty is not. Don't get me wrong, I like Rafferty a lot but Stecher is year older and in his 4th NHL season. Personally, I think Stecher is a very good player. I would sign him to a long term contract if it can be done for $3.5M AAV or less.

 

[DL44]

I think it "feels" like he is the harder defender to play against because of his size.

And that the few pass breakups that he does make are very easy to notice.

Yup.. well more specifically reach.. you notice a few times a game where Myers goes full extension and manages to disrupt something you know no other defender would be able to touch.

 

[DL44]

Except for the fact that Stecher is a proven NHL Dman and Rafferty is not. Don't get me wrong, I like Rafferty a lot but Stecher is year older and in his 4th NHL season. Personally, I think Stecher is a very good player. I would sign him to a long term contract if it can be done for $3.5M AAV or less.

I wouldn't.
We see Stecher's ceiling... he's the 6th dman.
This is the type of player you turnover to gamble on someone that may have a higher ceiling.
Someone with better offensive skills... altho he's better with the puck than Tanev... well.. everyone is.

 

[bandwagonesque]

Is anyone shocked that bandwagon didn’t return and apologize for trying to make an issue about 1 min of ice time. Proved wrong and nowhere to be seen in this thread.

Not interested in discussing topics just minutia and semantics.

I’m glad everyone gets to see it for what it is.

Super, except I was right that he wasn't playing 25 minutes a game. I suspected and took issue with it not because it was egregious or obvious by itself, which it turned out not to be, but because MS misrepresented the ice time of every defenseman he mentioned in the course of the discussion, saying Stecher was getting 10 minutes a game this season at a point when he was averaging 14 and the Myers was being force-fed "massive" minutes as a result when he was averaging high 2nd pairing/low 1st pairing minutes that were actually slightly less than his career average. Calling these things out isn't semantics. They're false and misleading.

 

[4Twenty]

Super, except I was right that he wasn't playing 25 minutes a game. I suspected and took issue with it not because it was egregious or obvious by itself, which it turned out not to be, but because MS misrepresented the ice time of every defenseman he mentioned in the course of the discussion, saying Stecher was getting 10 minutes a game this season at a point when he was averaging 14 and the Myers was being force-fed "massive" minutes as a result when he was averaging high 2nd pairing/low 1st pairing minutes that were actually slightly less than his career average. Calling these things out isn't semantics. They're false and misleading.

He averaged over 25 for a month. I showed you that. Why continue to dispute it?

3 of the 8 games Stecher has played are 10 minute games. Two are 12 minute games.

10-12 minutes feels like it’s being marginalized based on how heavily he was used last season.

Myers playing games of 24+ minutes , like Edler, is heavy minutes in my opinion. Just as I thought it was for Stecher last year.

It really wasn’t misleading to anyone but you, everyone got the gist of it and you were wrong when you called him out and you’re doubling down on It now.

 

[GetFocht]

I think Stecher is the odd man out when Tryamkin returns. He can probably fetch a 3rd or 4th rounder.

 

[bandwagonesque]

He averaged over 25 for a month. I showed you that. Why continue to dispute it?

3 of the 8 games Stecher has played are 10 minute games. Two are 12 minute games.

10-12 minutes feels like it’s being marginalized based on how heavily he was used last season.

Myers playing games of 24+ minutes , like Edler, is heavy minutes in my opinion. Just as I thought it was for Stecher last year.

It really wasn’t misleading to anyone but you, everyone got the gist of it and you were wrong when you called him out and you’re doubling down on It now.

You're well aware that nothing that you've mentioned here has anything to do with the claims MS made or whether they were true.

 

[F A N]

I wouldn't.
We see Stecher's ceiling... he's the 6th dman.
This is the type of player you turnover to gamble on someone that may have a higher ceiling.
Someone with better offensive skills... altho he's better with the puck than Tanev... well.. everyone is.

Ceiling? Stecher has played well when given top 4 minutes. His ceiling is much higher than that of a 6th Dman. He's 25 and has been relatively durable in his time here. I see him as a Calvin De Haan type. If you can get Stecher in his prime years on an affordable contract he can be pretty good value.

 

[brock hughes007]

McKenzie saying rumblings of Stech to Tor,,Minn,,or Philadelphia. stay tuned I guess..

 

[Hit the post]

It really wasn’t misleading to anyone but you, everyone got the gist of it and you were wrong when you called him out and you’re doubling down on It now.

And that surprises you?

Stecher was a solid find by Benning so it’s not merely a hate anything that Benning touches BS.

 

[F A N]

McKenzie saying rumblings of Stech to Tor,,Minn,,or Philadelphia. stay tuned I guess..

He said it was the same rumblings that Halford & Brough heard (basically that Stecher was included in summer trade offers). Nothing juicy.

I think the Canucks should hold onto Stecher for the rest of the season or at least until the deadline. Injuries are bound to happen and they need to make a decision on Tanev. It's better to get less for Stecher in a trade when he's the odd man out than to scramble to find a RS RD replacement.

 

[Billy Kvcmu]

McKenzie saying rumblings of Stech to Tor,,Minn,,or Philadelphia. stay tuned I guess..

lol, talk about misleading

 

[Pip]

So when does imac start reporting on Stecher’s attitude issues? Can we get Bartkowski’s mom to weigh in?

 

[member 290103]

Trading Stecher will be a mistake, imo.