Yes. They were a middle of the pack team 5v5.
If that is your reasoning, that is fair, but when I see things like 'he'll drag down the Corsi of his partner' it just sounds like people already have their minds made up about him. It's just an odd statement. Corsi is a flawed metric for obvious reasons, but the one thing Corsi does is it makes you evaluate things you might not otherwise. The good possession payers who have obvious puck skills are easy to spot, but it's the guys who aren't as noticeable that make you think. Radko Gudas is a perfect example. Great possession player. Most people think it's because he's some stay at home defenseman who's great defensively, but that's not really the reason.
You're on record that you think Morin is good in 2 out of the 3 zones. You can be a good possession player even if you aren't a good offensive player- or at the very least not 'drag your partner's Corsi down'. And as a defenseman, since forwards generate most of the shots anyway, if you are strong in the DZ and NZ you can survive. You can make a case that he'll always be somewhat dependent on his partner, but that doesn't mean he'll be AMac. Morin does have some unique skills that can contribute to being a positive possession player.
The big difference is Schenn couldn't skate. Morin can. Morin is also 6'7 which helps a lot defensively. Schenn was useless because he was overmatched physically which meant you couldn't put him out against top lines, and he didn't have the offensive chops to contribute offensively. Even if you don't think Morin is good offensively, I don't think Morin is going to be overmatched on the defensive side once he settles in.
Since Morin's name keeps coming up, I wonder if the people that mention him just haven't adjusted their own expectations. I recall an earlier discussion where I drew some parallels between Gudas and Morin and someone said they would be disappointed if Morin ended up like Gudas. That seems crazy to me. I was pretty high on Morin as a 19 year old. At that time Provorov wasn't in the system, Sanheim was a baby, Ghost blew out his knee, Myers wasn't in the system, and Gudas was in Tampa. Just looking at the names, on the left side, he's not going to play above Provorov and he's probably not going to play above Sanheim (or Ghost if he plays his natural side). So right there, he won't be a top 4 Dman. Is he a bust if that happens? If other guys are just flat out better?
jk
