Who is our worst defenseman?

[Honour Over Glory]

We'll keep this between 3 Defensemen.

As it stands - Letang, Dumoulin and Pettersson have been solid.

Riikola is too raw to even be in this poll, so let's make it between the 3 in contention. Well, mostly Maatta and Johnson, but Oleksiak should be in this argument as well.

As Discussed in a previous thread...

@MrBurghundy

Click to read more...

 

[EightyOne]

Gotta go with Maatta.

He has such a hard time keeping up in the league.

He might pass better than Johnson, but Johnson can also push people better than Maatta.

It's a toss up of players who are not end of career Hal Gill's, but also, no one would lose sleep if they were off the team.

Oleksiak is just mis-cast in this movie. He is a fourth line winger.

 

[Son Goku]

IMO its between Oleksiak and Maatta, non coincidentally that pairing is ridiculously garbage, like not even in the realm of NHL quality defending.

Between the two id have to pick Oleksiak, just because Maatta has a good brain, he's such a smart player, he can defend well, his stick checking is top notch the only thing that holds him back is his skating (stated for the 10,000th time I know)

Oleksiak just flat out sucks defensively in almost every conceivable way.

Johnson was close to Oleksiak in the suck world. But as of late I will admit he really has turned it around these past few weeks. (Remains to be seen if he can stay consistent. Im guessing not)

 

[Peat]

Riikola isn't too raw to be in the poll. Admittedly I want him on only so I can see who votes for him, and then point and laugh at them, but he should be on.

Anyway, I have to think whether this is Oleksiak or Johnson.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Riikola isn't too raw to be in the poll. Admittedly I want him on only so I can see who votes for him, and then point and laugh at them, but he should be on.

Anyway, I have to think whether this is Oleksiak or Johnson.

Added.

 

[Turin]

Oleskiak is slightly worse than Johnson but I’m willing to be persuaded otherwise.

 

[EightyOne]

Oleskiak is slightly worse than Johnson but I’m willing to be persuaded otherwise.

But Maatta is worse than both??

 

[BHD]

Johnson and Oleksiak are both capable of picking up their game in spurts. Maatta... not so much.

 

[Turin]

But Maatta is worse than both??

I don’t believe he is. I’ll take Olli all day if I had to send one of these guys out in one goal playoff game. That says more to how much I don’t trust the others than Maattas greatness but yea.

 

[Turin]

Johnson and Oleksiak are both capable of picking up their game in spurts. Maatta... not so much.

Maatta at least has made important plays in the playoffs and taken tough minutes and didn’t get obliterated. Oleksiak will never do that.

 

[BHD]

Maatta at least has made important plays in the playoffs and taken tough minutes and didn’t get obliterated. Oleksiak will never do that.

I suppose... I guess it depends if you're going by their careers so far or just this season.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Johnson and Oleksiak are both capable of picking up their game in spurts. Maatta... not so much.

I agree, I kind of hate the crap Oleksiak gets, I think he's being told to be a certain type of player. They see he can skate and he has decent offensive IQ and so that side of his game is being pushed but the guy goes so deep into the offensive zone sometimes, it's like dude what are you doing? There's a solid #5/6 defensemen there in Rig, I just don't know if this team can pull it out of him on a consistent basis right now, between Sarge & Martin.

Pettersson is an easier guy because he's already known for being a solid guy in his own end, all they need to work on there is secretly add weight gainer to his pregame shakes.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

I suppose... I guess it depends if you're going by their careers so far or just this season.

Olli has also been a regular a lot longer than Oleksiak, we don't really know what Rig can do, but he also didn't look terrible in the playoffs last year.

 

[LOGiK]

We'll keep this between 3 Defensemen.

As it stands - Letang, Dumoulin and Pettersson have been solid.

Riikola is too raw to even be in this poll, so let's make it between the 3 in contention. Well, mostly Maatta and Johnson, but Oleksiak should be in this argument as well.

As Discussed in a previous thread...

@MrBurghundy

Why is there no 'All of the above' option? That would be too easy I suppose.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Why is there no 'All of the above' option? That would be too easy I suppose.

There's no chance Dumoulin and Letang are even remotely close to be deserving of that title. Schultz doesn't deserve it either and Pettersson has been here for a fair amount of time, but has been better than those guys listed (Riikola, not fair, he doesn't get to play often enough to play out of his rust).

 

[Ryder71]

Maatta started off his career with a lot of promise as he easily surpassed all expectations his rookie campaign. Since then health issues and the subsequent inconsistency and regression in his play have clearly hurt his career as well as this team. I am amazed at just how far his game has fallen off. I don't know which of the three is the worst, as it can change from game to game, but I know who by a country mile is the biggest disappointment! Kris Letang!



























Just kidding, it's Maatta!

 

[Honour Over Glory]

@Ryder71

Maatta's problem is more so just the trend of the NHL being something he's not built for. Maybe in the West, actually I know in the West he'd probably do a lot better with a lot of teams still playing a heavier game that isn't built so much on speed that the East has ushered in the last few seasons. It's hard to really hate the guy because of what he's gone through and how good he was before the league started to trend towards speed and Olli just not physically equipped to handle that change.

Very very very few players can suddenly get faster after being a regular for as long as Olli has. For a guy that worked hard to polish up whatever he did have, is not likely to suddenly add another gear or two. Even then, a smarter player would make that work for him, Olli may have decent hockey IQ at times, but doesn't seem to grasp that.

When Olli hangs back, those are games he's having a better time defending, but the games where he keeps trying to rush up and play a more offensive game, oh man...it's a journey. If he were to work at just being a stay at home type of defender, he could make his limitations work for him, but I sense that's something that is tough for a player to just do, like surrendering to the notion that you aren't something you thought you were.

 

[EightyOne]

Maatta on STL or hell, LAK....perfect fit.

 

[Tom Hanks]

Big Rig has the worst IQ out of them and things can go sour pretty quickly. We need to move away from those risky defenders who don’t really bring the high reward. He’s offense dried up after a fast start as well.

If JR wants one guy who can fight make it a 4th liner. We need safer, smarter D with less question marks than who we have. When Schultz is back we can look pretty good while moving on from Oleksiak/Maatta.

Dumoulin-Letang
Pettersson-Schultz
Riikola-Johnson
Ruhwedel

Maybe bring in a better depth D as the #6/7 at the deadline.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Big Rig has the worst IQ out of them and things can go sour pretty quickly. We need to move away from those risky defenders who don’t really bring the high reward. He’s offense dried up after a fast start as well.

If JR wants one guy who can fight make it a 4th liner. We need safer, smarter D with less question marks than who we have. When Schultz is back we can look pretty good while moving on from Oleksiak/Maatta.

Dumoulin-Letang
Pettersson-Schultz
Riikola-Johnson
Ruhwedel

Maybe bring in a better depth D as the #6/7 at the deadline.

I'd move Rig for The Rev. Only because we really could use another reliable guy in our own end that can play physical more consistently. Sometimes, and I really wanted Rig to blossom, he just frustrates me that he doesn't crush people.

Being here, I had the opportunity to watch that Tryamkin kid, holy crap I wish we could have gotten him AT LEAST in the Pouliot trade, we got a big guy, just a very useless one in Pedan.

When I initially heard we sent Pouliot to the Canucks, I was hoping for 1 of 2 names to be coming back Tryamkin or Virtanen, we got Pedan instead...

 

[Ryder71]

@Ryder71

Maatta's problem is more so just the trend of the NHL being something he's not built for. Maybe in the West, actually I know in the West he'd probably do a lot better with a lot of teams still playing a heavier game that isn't built so much on speed that the East has ushered in the last few seasons. It's hard to really hate the guy because of what he's gone through and how good he was before the league started to trend towards speed and Olli just not physically equipped to handle that change.

Very very very few players can suddenly get faster after being a regular for as long as Olli has. For a guy that worked hard to polish up whatever he did have, is not likely to suddenly add another gear or two. Even then, a smarter player would make that work for him, Olli may have decent hockey IQ at times, but doesn't seem to grasp that.

When Olli hangs back, those are games he's having a better time defending, but the games where he keeps trying to rush up and play a more offensive game, oh man...it's a journey. If he were to work at just being a stay at home type of defender, he could make his limitations work for him, but I sense that's something that is tough for a player to just do, like surrendering to the notion that you aren't something you thought you were.

I don't expect him to get much faster but he's not reading the play as well as he used to (or so it seems) and he's turning the puck over more frequently. Before, his lack of speed and mobility was his primary issue. Now I see it as one of several issues he's having. He seems more tentative and unsure, but no question the speed game particularly in the east does not fit well with a guy like that.

 

[Ryder71]

Maatta on STL or hell, LAK....perfect fit.

Not perfect but more in line with how they play.

 

[LOGiK]

There's no chance Dumoulin and Letang are even remotely close to be deserving of that title. Schultz doesn't deserve it either and Pettersson has been here for a fair amount of time, but has been better than those guys listed (Riikola, not fair, he doesn't get to play often enough to play out of his rust).

Nah, I should of clarified. Of your 3 choices I meant, all of the above, but then I saw Rii in there too and thought 'all of the above - Rii'.
I didn't mean all of the above in the whole team though. My bad, confusion.

 

[Giskard]

Since the D looked a lot better without Oleksiak (even with 5 D!), I'm going with him, but it's neck on neck with Maatta.

 

[ColePens]

I'll fight whoever picks Riikola.