Yandle's first season?

[Allan92]

So I don't get to see many Panthers games so I'm curious as to how Yandle has been doing in his first season?

I loved him on the Rangers, was sad to see him gone....his point totals seem ok but he's a minus 5? has he been that bad in his own zone?

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[barkovcanfinnish]

So I don't get to see many Panthers games so I'm curious as to how Yandle has been doing in his first season?

I loved him on the Rangers, was sad to see him gone....his point totals seem ok but he's a minus 5? has he been that bad in his own zone?

He's been pretty awful in his own zone. However, that's been a running theme for the whole team for most of the season.

 

[SoupyFIN]

Shortly put, he plays too much and against competition that he can't handle.

 

[ucanthanzalthetruth]

+/- is not relevant. However, he has not been good.

 

[ShootIt]

Felt he wasn't as good as he could of been. Willing to wait till next year and hopefully we get a better coach. Then I can judge Yandle

 

[Gentle Man]

He isnt a viable #1.

Better if he was a 2nd pair #2, but team didnt have that.

 

[Big Bjugs]

Gudbranson beside Yandle would have been magic.

 

[batting1k]

I don't know why everyone is so surprised by his D zone play. We didn't acquire him to be a defensive defenseman. He was signed for his offensive/power play abilities and he's delivered on that for the most part.

Now should he be with a more defensive-minded partner? Sure, but again, he wasn't signed primarily for his defensive abilities.

 

[batting1k]

Gudbranson beside Yandle would have been magic.

Please lord no

 

[FlaPanthers11]

I don't know why everyone is so surprised by his D zone play. We didn't acquire him to be a defensive defenseman. He was signed for his offensive/power play abilities and he's delivered on that for the most part.

Now should he be with a more defensive-minded partner? Sure, but again, he wasn't signed primarily for his defensive abilities.

This is the problem. They didn't sign anyone primarily for his defensive abilities.

Also we're all about saving every dollar of cap space here now and spending 7 million on a guy who we can't rely on for defense? Not good.

 

[Big Bjugs]

Please lord no

Just picture it. Yandle trying to find his offensive abilities in the offensive zone, out of position, and Gudbranson trying to find his defensive game in our zone, out of position.

 

[IceManCat]

Shortly put, he plays too much and against competition that he can't handle.

Yanadle is by no means bad in his own zone. He just isn't particularly great. ^^This is the best answer

 

[FrolikFan67]

This is the problem. They didn't sign anyone primarily for his defensive abilities.

Also we're all about saving every dollar of cap space here now and spending 7 million on a guy who we can't rely on for defense? Not good.

6.35per cap hit. but being a ufa i expected him to get 7 actually. i think he's on a very fair contract.

 

[Gentle Man]

6.35per cap hit. but being a ufa i expected him to get 7 actually. i think he's on a very fair contract.

Thats his cap hit yea.

But his first 3 he is getting paid 7.5 million in actual dollars and it scales down to 5.75 then 5.2 the last year.

 

[5 Hole]

He gets a pass for this year.. I'm sure he wasn't planning on walking in to the ****show we have going on.

 

[Crossbar]

My assessment of Yandle compared to Brian Campbell.....

Shoots the puck when he's wide open, Soup did not do this......at all, and when he did it was a pathetic wimpy shot (probably why he preferred not to shoot it). Why is that important? Besides making the opposing team's defense work harder to stop shots, there's less overpassing and less killing of the play by giving it away around the boards to nobody like Soup always did. Ekblad last year in 78 games had 182 total shots on goal.....this year in 68 games (10 less games), he got 225 total shots on goal for 3rd highest in the league among defensemen. When it doesn't become completely obvious your defense partner isn't going to shoot the puck, you tend to find yourself a little more open ice and open shooting lanes. I don't credit Yandle for such an increase, rather I blame Campbell for limiting the other 4 skaters on the ice. Wonder why Pirri became less effective on the #2 PP unit last year and was eventually replaced by Jokinen? Maybe because teams finally figured out they don't need to cover Campbell's non-threatening shot.

Yandle does a good job with keep-ins in the offensive zone, some of these passes he receives are beyond horrible and he somehow manages to keep them from crossing over the blueline. Yes there have been horrible turnovers committed by him this season (by everyone), but don't pretend Campbell didn't turnover any pucks. Soup got knocked down to 2nd PP unit for a reason and a forward in Bjugstad was forced to replace him on the #1 PP unit. Gallant logic: "Well each of my pointmen are slugs getting back on defense on the PP, at least let me get Bjugs to fire some bombs with Ekblad".

Good passing and vision. Campbell was better at keeping pucks flat and on the tape, Yandle did more stretch passes that led to players being wide open and finding guys for breakaway chances even while being shorthanded.

Puck moving ability, I'll give Campbell the clear advantage here. He did it absolutely effortlessly while Yandle actually needs to concentrate to do this and it's still not as good as Soup, but what good is moving the puck if you're not going to create jack**** out of it? That is what you got from Campbell, no creativity and empty puck possession minutes. Yandle has more creativity since he can actually be a viable shooting threat, during odd-man rushes, etc...though the drawback was Yandle took too many chances and a forward usually doesn't effectively cover for him.

Defense, Campbell did well even-strength and Yandle did well on the PK. I'll give Campbell the advantage since even-strength is obviously more minutes played and he also did well with whoever he was paired with and Yandle doesn't. Campbell can clear pucks out, while Yandle and the rest of the D don't clear the puck out, which is the most frustrating part of the entire season.....but it MIGHT be a system issue, because clearly the PK this year proved they can do it with ONE MAN LESS on the ice.....makes no sense.

If you're going to talk about Yandle being soft and Campbell not, then you're just flat out lying.

At the end of the day, I would still rather overpay Yandle for his offensive skill set vs overpay for Campbell's defensive skill set and I would definitely take Campbell on this team without question at his current Blackhawk salary. Campbell contract >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Kindl contract

 

[SoupyFIN]

My assessment of Yandle compared to Brian Campbell.....

Shoots the puck when he's wide open, Soup did not do this......at all, and when he did it was a pathetic wimpy shot (probably why he preferred not to shoot it). Why is that important? Besides making the opposing team's defense work harder to stop shots, there's less overpassing and less killing of the play by giving it away around the boards to nobody like Soup always did. Ekblad last year in 78 games had 182 total shots on goal.....this year in 68 games (10 less games), he got 225 total shots on goal for 3rd highest in the league among defensemen. When it doesn't become completely obvious your defense partner isn't going to shoot the puck, you tend to find yourself a little more open ice and open shooting lanes. I don't credit Yandle for such an increase, rather I blame Campbell for limiting the other 4 skaters on the ice. Wonder why Pirri became less effective on the #2 PP unit last year and was eventually replaced by Jokinen? Maybe because teams finally figured out they don't need to cover Campbell's non-threatening shot.

Firstly, Yandle hasn't boosted Ekblad's shot totals, Ekblad has spent most of his time with Pysyk anyway. It's the change in philosophy this year to create offense from the point by shooting a lot. Hasn't been exactly a successful plan.

Secondly, Yandle's shot isn't that much of a threat. Yes, he shoots the puck a lot more than Campbell did, but at the same time many of those shots miss the net by a country mile ála Kulikov. Yandle's goal totals have been trending down the past few years and he hasn't reached double digits since the lockout season.

Also worth noting that with how our d-men have scored a lot this year, Yandle is still trailing Campbell's goal total from last year by one goal.. not the once great Campbell slightly past his prime, the 37yo nearing retirement version. I'm afraid how Yandle is going to look 3-4 years from now, when you can have a legimate argument that Campbell's last season as a Panther was better than the guy on his first year of a 6 year contract. We're in big trouble if he's going to be playing top pairing minutes for the duration of that contract.

 

[Crossbar]

Firstly, Yandle hasn't boosted Ekblad's shot totals, Ekblad has spent most of his time with Pysyk anyway. It's the change in philosophy this year to create offense from the point by shooting a lot. Hasn't been exactly a successful plan.

Secondly, Yandle's shot isn't that much of a threat. Yes, he shoots the puck a lot more than Campbell did, but at the same time many of those shots miss the net by a country mile ála Kulikov. Yandle's goal totals have been trending down the past few years and he hasn't reached double digits since the lockout season.

Also worth noting that with how our d-men have scored a lot this year, Yandle is still trailing Campbell's goal total from last year by one goal.. not the once great Campbell slightly past his prime, the 37yo nearing retirement version. I'm afraid how Yandle is going to look 3-4 years from now, when you can have a legimate argument that Campbell's last season as a Panther was better than the guy on his first year of a 6 year contract. We're in big trouble if he's going to be playing top pairing minutes for the duration of that contract.

Like I said, I don't credit Yandle for Ekblad's shot increase.

To me the philosophy to shoot from the point or to feed the pointman as far as Ekblad is concerned hasn't changed since he joined the Panthers. The other d-men were all just limited offensively in the previous seasons, so yeah, why would the forwards feed the puck to Mitchell or Guds? But Ekblad they absolutely fed the puck to him whenever they could.

Pysyk does not play on the PP and he played with pretty much everyone, but you would expect with more shooting d-men on the team in Yandle, Demers and Matheson that Ekblad's shot total would go down instead of up, it's most likely because teams can't just focus on only Ekblad.....but anyway that's how I see it, I see what you're saying too.

 

[Brokin]

^I've said this before, Ekblad was obsessive compulsive with shooting the puck this year. He had 225 shots on goal to 182 last season in 10 less games but god only knows how many times he shot and missed the net. He was a shadow of the player he was last year with his S% this year at half of what it was last season. The guy just didn't understand that his brain was so scrambled that his hockey IQ was non existent. Watching Kulikov today fail to stagger his defensive position and give up a breakaway was a reminder of his brain farts here and was reminiscent of watching Ek most of the year as he struggled to understand that defense first takes priority over offense when your d partner has left his position to go low. He failed to distribute the puck on the PP or any other time he had a shot from the point 5 on 5.

I hope he comes back a different man when they return in the fall after he has given himself a long rest without being jarred all over the place. If he were smart he wouldn't return until after the first of the year and only when he feels like he has obtained some sense of calm in his demeanor and common sense.

Agitation at the refs this year was something you never saw in previous seasons. That coupled with his confusion of what day it was back on October 6th are prime symptoms of a guy not thinking clearly. He received a few extra penalty minutes because of it and the repeated penalties for interference were the picture of a guy who just not himself.

His whole contract situation is just a failure of monumental proportions to reward a 20 year old kid another $2M more per season than was ever deserved. Even $5.5M per would have looked like an obscene overpayment this past season. Let's hope he can work his way back to the guy who may be worth $5.5 and maybe someday if he gets it all together can actually go home at night and say he earned his paycheck. We can thank Joyce/Werier for this massive failure as they were totally outgunned and intimidated by Eks agent, the best defenseman ever in the NHL, Bobby Orr.

 

[harv33173]

i like yandle. he's a warrior. didn't miss a game. he is definetely the number 1 d-man this team. he plays huge minutes and is affected by the lack of adequate defensemen and system around him. he stands up for his teamates. seems to be well liked. is doing what he is paid to do. as far as campbell. if he was here our d would be much improved. last year everyone was all over campbell . this year it's yandle and ekblad seems to get a pass. ekblad is a major reason our d was so bad. yandle is not. i like him and think he is a major contributor.

 

[PanthersHockey1]

Correct me if im wrong but since huby has come back from injury our PP has looked and executed much better.

Seems like a lot of our goals are PPG these days.

 

[MintyFresh88]

In my opinion, he's been fine. His PPG are very close to his career average and he's really been as advertised defensively. I think we need to find him a more suitable D partner and possibly decrease his TOI 5v5 a bit. Other than that, I have no real issues.

 

[PsychoPanther]

Yandle is exactly as advertised. Some people expected more from him, but it's those people's problems. I love to have this guy in our team.

 

[Howboutthempanthers]

As with all the players now, I would like to see him with a better functioning team to judge him better.

 

[Big Bjugs]

As with all the players now, I would like to see him with a better functioning team to judge him better.

This is the biggest problem. It's hard to judge every player based off lousy coaching. I wonder, even if GG still got fired, if a coach, who knows what he is doing, took over, how much would this team have performed differently?