|
About 6 months ago the talk was how Klein was not fit for the 2 pair. When we got Hal Gill, people were relieved this bumped Klein to the bottom pair.
Gill gets injured and Klein has the best 6 games of the lifetime vs Detroit. Everyone loves Klein.
To me, Klein performance vs Detroit was an anomaly, not some realistic hope of how he's going to play the rest of his career. He has been absolutely horrible in most other playoff series-- he was on the ice for an ungodly percentage of goals against in playoffs from 2010 - 2011.
IMO, Klein is a below-average top 4 defenseman who makes way more mistakes than he should. He has virtually no offense (12 goals in 7 seasons). He has minimal physical presence.
This signing pretty much means Klein is cemented in top 4 for the next five years, a move that will not help us take steps needed to be an elite team IMO.
Putting average (at best) players in key positions is why we haven't taken steps to be an elite team.
If he plays like he did vs Detroit, great. But unfortunately I don't think it's very realistic that's going to happen.
|