Sarcastic wrote:mikey287 wrote:Hugo Stiglitz wrote:Despite your feelings on Engelland, we can't afford to lose him unless Shero is in fact going out and buying someone like Allen. Outside of Orpik, we don't have any physical stay-at-home dmen. We're going to get lit up with a core of all offensive dmen.
That's fine, I don't disagree even. Engelland has the most value to the organization out of that group probably. But eventually, he'll probably need to be phased out of the lineup (even further) to achieve optimal success. If Engelland was better at preventing goals, he'd be welcomed with open arms...but I'm not sure he prevents any more goals than these offensive d-men that you're talking about...
Honestly, I felt a lot safer with him on the ice than Martin or Michalek last year. And I'm not talking out of my dislike for the other two. I mean that.
Right, well, Engelland played against 3rd and 4th lines most of the year...so I would have too. But we lost a lot of ground with Engelland on the ice, territorially, even against weak competition. The coaching staff would agree with me in their distrust of him. Even look at the elementary things like being scratched for two consecutive playoffs and then being stapled to the bench for a third...even over the course of the year, no d-man had an easier job on this team and only Niskanen started his shift in the offensive zone more than Engelland (Engo 55.5% of the time) and no defenseman had a worse time of keeping it out of our zone than Engelland (he only finished those shifts in the offensive zone 48% of the time)...goals didn't go in a lot when Engelland or Niskanen were out there, but Engelland is also an offense killer and probably held Niskanen back. The lack of goals against on Engelland is attributable to his playing sheltered minutes against the worst the other team has to offer. He's not an integral part of this club's success at this point and given his skillset, he doesn't project to be.
If his physicality and willingness to fight are important to club (which I believe they are, like the consensus) then my suggestion of moving him to forward would be best for both parties. Even at 30 years old, the coaches don't trust him in first round playoff games...that won't change at 31...