scoutyjones2
Well-Known Member
What? Letang out with an injury? Color me shocked!!!Kris Letang Out For Weeks With Lower-Body Injury
This stinks. Luckily Schultz is playing above himself right now.
They really should move him...once healthy
What? Letang out with an injury? Color me shocked!!!Kris Letang Out For Weeks With Lower-Body Injury
This stinks. Luckily Schultz is playing above himself right now.
Yep....three things to expect in life: death, taxes and a Letang injury.What? Letang out with an injury? Color me shocked!!!
They really should move him...once healthy
Three periods: Hornqvist, Hagelin, Kunitz seek to increase shooting percentages
The second part discusses Maatta. With his contract, and it seems his total lack of speed, I am wondering if they should just leave him exposed in the expansion draft?
Like I have said many times...not a Maata fan. He's slow, worthless offensively, passing is meh, shot is bleh, isn't a physical presence, and only sees top minutes due to injuries.
And Schultz is playing well, not the way he was projected to do when drafted. He's fine but not a top 4 dman...
Context
That's what I like to call the lazy man's eye test on Maatta. These same complaints that I see about him sound almost exactly what the critique of Paul Martin dealt with during his first few years as a Penguin.
Those are all stereotypes of Maatta that have somehow been created and repeated among the Pens' fanbase, and I find it pretty hilarious. About the only one I agree with is that he isn't a fast skater. Well, that may be true in a sense that he's not near the skating defenseman Letang or Daley are, yet he's not Rob Scuderi or Brooks Orpik, either. He's just as mobile as Ian Cole and Dumoulin are, and what he lacks in the physcial presence of those two, he makes up for in vision and stick work. Those are two crucial attributes in an NHL defenseman of today.
As far as Schultz is concerned,.. don't kid yourself about that opinion, scouty. When Schultz was making his jump to the NHL he caused a stir by refusing a contract with the team who initially drafted him in Anaheim. He turned himself into what is essentially an unrestricted free agent as a rookie who was up for the highest bidder. Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey personally went to bat for Edmonton and recruited Schultz. He was projected to play this way. In his first professional season in the AHL he won the equivalent of the Norris award and did it while playing only half of a season. For the first time in his career as a hockey player at the NHL level, he's actually living up to it. What's funny to me is Rutherford probably pulled off quite the fleece job of Edmonton is Schultz continues to play this way.
Agreed. Maatta's been sharp this season. He's not a playmaker, but he doesn't have to be. He's very efficient of getting possession of the puck in his own end and turning it up into the neutral zone and beyond. That's the primary objective of a defenseman, to turn your opponents' possession into your possession, and he's good at it.
He doesn't need to score goals. He makes smart plays in the offensive zone to keep the puck alive for his teammates so they can score them. He's not made a lot of mental mistakes this season.
He's smart, and he gets the job done. He deserves the minutes he gets, he's performed. He's the sort of player who doesn't stand out, because nothing he does is splashy (but he also doesn't make a ton of mistakes), but he keeps the mechanics of the team running smoothly.
The two things that still hurt Maatta the most:
1. Very slow - truly I think he is in the Orpik/Scuderi range there. And not sure much can be done to fix that.
2. Still takes bad angles - this is very coachable and is needed to make up for his lack of speed.
Also can't really compare him to Dumoulin or Cole because they are never to be projected as a top 4 defenseman that Maatta has been. I don't expect much offense from him, truthfully the dream scenario for the Penguins would be a Pouliot/Maatta pairing (too bad both shoot left handed).
But going back to the original question do you think he has improved enough to warrant a protection from the expansion draft, knowing his contract could be viewed as a barrier to be picked so is it worth the gamble to leave him exposed? As for me I am still on the fence but with his age and continued improvement I see no reason not to protect him. BUT that is still a huge gamble at 4 million a year, especially 3 years from now if they need that cap space to resign Matt Murray.
Asst. Coach Martin has been quoted as saying recently that Maatta is still recovering stamina from a drug he had to take during his cancer fight, so there might still be some untapped effort he can still attain.
I agree that his angles can be improved, and if he can do that, his lack of speed can be at least mitigated.
One thing I will also say about Ian Cole being comparable to Maatta is that Cole is a former 1st Rd. pick himself, taken 18th overall by St. Louis. He was never expected to be a point producer from the back-end, but he also isn't lacking in pedigree. Also, when Dumoulin was included in the Staal trade, Jim Rutherford said at the time while he was the GM in Carolina that Shero demanded that he be included in the return, so obviously, there is something that both Shero and Rutherford agreed upon that Dum has talent.
Very valid point and that will kill stamina for a long period of time.
Oh don't get me wrong about Cole and Dumoulin, both very valuable and don't want either to leave. Cole, yeah he was a top pick and actually thought to be more offensive than Maatta from draft analysis. I was going by more now with Cole and Dumoulin and what Maatta should become, meaning what you see now is what Cole and Dumuolin are for their careers and that Maatta is still very young and paid to become something more.