Young dmen are weird. Murray was great his first year and badly regressed (along with injuries) and now he appears like he's getting better again. Z was even better his first year and regressed his second year.
Its not just defenseman, and
NEITHER guy has "regressed" as a
hockey player since their rookie NHL seasons.
The people who say that just simply look at the "results" or the "numbers", mainly
OFFENSIVE numbers. The truth is NO hockey player/NHL player gets
worse as a player at 19-20-21 years old, the things that DO change are the fans perception/"hype" of the player, along with MANY-MANY situational things involving the team personnel and the on-ice usage and deployment of each individual player. Injuries and quite a bit different off ice/preparation "issues" are 2 legit issues that can affect a player negatively. Ex: BC Summer ER visit.
However, a player going from easier ice time his 1st year or so, and then not being able to adapt as quickly as others can to more or tougher ice time, should not be seen as "regressing", as in Werenski's case.
And to add to this, and to add to more of my HATE for
the decimals, just how much of the game of hockey (and Werenski's wrist shots from the point through 8 bodies) is
"a game of inches"?! Where do all the instances of "luck" or "chance" fit into the "numbers"/"analytics" and the concept of "regression"? Serious questions.
Murray-Jones is a superior #1 pairing, and will be going forward.
I believe we see Werenski moved this summer and the initial reaction will be very similar to the
Jones trade along with the
results moving forward.