This gets kind of tricky. I agree with Tanev and Edler, and I'll vote for Stecher at #3 because he's our best
offensive D, is seriously trying to be good in his own end, has great hockey sense, a great attitude,
and is doing all of that as a rookie. Hutton is improving, might have better tools, but Stecher has the
better toolbox hands down.
The tricky part is honestly evaluating Hutton, Sbisa, Tryamkin, and Gudbranson as they are now, and can
be expected to be in the reasonably near future. Sbisa for all his long history of gaffes is now playing quite
well on the whole.
Currently he's a legitimate middling NHL D IMO. Tryamkin is now as good or better than Gudbranson,
and is obviously trending upward. How much of Hutton's recent improvement is due to playing with Trammer and not Guds?
That alone is a gold star for the BFG, who IMO has a ceiling of a 4 or a 3. However, how much could Gudbranson improve when
healthy again, after having watched many weeks worth of improvement by his fellow D while sidelined?
He will turn 25 tomorrow and his learning curve, if it exists, may be flattening out pretty soon.
Currently those four D seem fairly tightly clustered. But given their talent levels and ages, I would
think that in, say, a year or two, their ranking would be Hutton, Tryamkin, Sbisa, and Gudbranson.
Sbisa turns 27 at the end of this month so he's definitely in his prime right now. Gudbranson could
improve for a couple more years . . . in theory. There's all kinds of time left for Stecher, Hutton, and
Tryamkin to improve, and the smartest will tend to improve the most. Personally, Trammer is my dark
horse in that race, partly owing to his stature and to his current rawness vs rate of improvement. But it's
a great race for Canuck fans to be watching, however it goes. Then there's the still younger blood coming in,
Brisebois and Juolevi, (with Neill as a wildcard if he learns how to skate) who may have the talent and
drive to push or surpass those ahead of them.
Prepare for HF Armageddon if
Juolevi doesn't do that
