wow. Im waiting to hear what Poile has to say about this. Surely there is a good reason besides trading cap space and cash.
To me.
Short term: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. The players who would be playing in Milwaukee on one ways will be playing on defense in Nashville. SK wins the forward spot. SOB played about 2 minutes of PK a game but he creates a lot of PK time. SK get's a roster spot.
Long term; Open's up a defensive roster spot for Blum next year.
Well, Poile must see something in O'Brien. $1.6m this year, 2g 6a 79pim in 65 games last year. They're obviously not bringing him over for his offense.
SOB adds nastiness and grit to our blue line, something that was sorely lacking. In fact, the one major positive here is that it should take a lot of responsibility off Weber for sticking up for his teammates...
The less Weber has to drop the gloves the better I like Shane O'Brien...
SOB adds nastiness and grit to our blue line, something that was sorely lacking. In fact, the one major positive here is that it should take a lot of responsibility off Weber for sticking up for his teammates...
The less Weber has to drop the gloves the better I like Shane O'Brien...
That, even if true, on face value still makes this deal a head scratcher. Isn't that what Belak is for?
I think Poile started his happy hour when he woke up today.
Kostitsyn, Franson, O'Brien, Smithson, Ward. The bottom forwards and defensemen will get their time playing specials and the top guys will get a lot of the ES minutes.
If they Double up Franson on PP and O'Brien takes up a lot of PK minutes from Boullion. You can see Cube as mostly an ES defenseman. Now how much PK time Dumont gets could be interesting.
If O'Brien can play fifteen minutes a night, be reasonably disciplined but bring grit to the lineup and keep Weber on the ice more by absorbing the punishment/penalties associated with sticking up for his teammates, this will turn out to have been a good trade.
SOB adds nastiness and grit to our blue line, something that was sorely lacking. In fact, the one major positive here is that it should take a lot of responsibility off Weber for sticking up for his teammates...
The less Weber has to drop the gloves the better I like Shane O'Brien...
His fighting dropped off on Vancouver over the years. He in fact got into a fight with management and publicly accused them of telling him to fight more, which he didn't like, as he wasn't comfortable doing that.
He doesn't hit a lot either. He does do the after the whistle scrum stuff, though, so face washes will be handed out quite often.
SOB has shown flashes of being a great d-man, he is just so freaking inconsistent. I think in Vancouver he got caught up in trying to bring an offensive flair to his game, as our coach encourages the d-men helping out in that regard, but that is not his strong point at all. He pinched at the worst times.
If you can keep SOB disciplined, and make sure he plays within his skillset and plays defensively, then this might work out fine for you guys. People aren't lying when they say they saw flashes of a #4 d-man in SOB, sometimes he would play a perfect game where you just wish he would play like that all the time, but alas his discipline off and on the ice would lead to the inconsistency factor. He would also publicly fight his battles with the team, which lead to management probably being a bit annoyed with him.
He did cut down on his stupid penalties A LOT his last year with us, though, so that is a positive sign. And from all accounts, teammates love the guy, he just probably is the last guy you would want to send to your farm team to be around the young guys, due to his night life style. He also got in trouble last year because he was always late, and his teammates usually covered for him, but SOB wasn't picking up his phone so they finally had enough and didn't cover for him, and he got in trouble with the team for missing practice.
Do not put him in your top 4, though. Pray he is your #5-6 d-man.
Well, I said no way would we bring in a guy to play higher than 6th man this close to the season start, even if Poile liked something about O'Brien. Now we jettison two of our defenders and bring in O'Brien. LOL! Well Lightning Legwand, looks like Poile liked O'Brien. Good call.
I assume Johnson is expected for top six now? I wonder what O'Brien brings? It seems odd if he's supposed to be a tougher guy if he doesn't really like that role.
Terrible move; I was impressed with Parent in the preseason and I haven't seen anything from O'Brien that leads me to believe that he is an upgrade over Parent. My only knock on Parent was his inability to get the puck out of the zone, but so does Bouillion...
Anderrson is good depth as a guy who can play on different lines and had speed.
If Sulzer is on waivers the team must be planning on operating without a seventh defenseman on the roster and just calling up Blum/Josi/whoever when necessary. Interesting.
Looks like Vancouver got tired of his antics. O'Brien has the potential to become a top 3 D-man. Seriously.
At times he has shown glimpses of defensive brilliance. However, he doesn't want to work at all on his game.
...this is akin to "HF Boards have the potential to have everyone agree on every topic. Seriously".
SOB is NOT a top end Dman now or likely ever. He is a warrior and plays with passion but doubt VERY much any team in NHL would be in such dire straits to have to consider him in their top four.
Vancouver did this so they could move two contracts, put Parent on waivers (he'd get picked up probably... Rome wouldn't) and Andersson doesn't count as a contract.
Preds probably wanted him already but getting rid of Parent means their payroll only increases by x amount instead of $1.6m
Vancouver did this so they could move two contracts, put Parent on waivers (he'd get picked up probably... Rome wouldn't) and Andersson doesn't count as a contract.
Preds probably wanted him already but getting rid of Parent means their payroll only increases by x amount instead of $1.6m
Why doesn't Andersson count as a contract? He's signed to a one-way deal and I was talking to him less than 4 hours ago minutes before he was told he was traded. He's in North America, not Sweden...
SOB adds nastiness and grit to our blue line, something that was sorely lacking. In fact, the one major positive here is that it should take a lot of responsibility off Weber for sticking up for his teammates...
The less Weber has to drop the gloves the better I like Shane O'Brien...
This.
How many years have we wailed and complained about how guys like Sully and Dumont get roughed up by the opposition and nobody ever makes them pay, or at worst tootoo ends up fighting their fighter/agitator which really doesnt accomplish any kind of deterrence?
Now if we have a nasty/borderline psychotic defenseman who is going to be on the ice against some of the oppositions more fraglie players, maybe some other teams will think twice before headhunting our skill players.
Bottom line, David Poile is probably one of the finest assessors of defensemen in the hockey universe. I dont totally understand this move, but I'll trust him until proven otherwise.
Yes, but O'Brien is capable of playing 20 minutes a night, something Belak should not do. ever.
or tootoo for that matter, which, along with the refs proclivity to not give Jordin any benefit of the doubt, significantly limits his effectiveness as a deterrent
Terrible move; I was impressed with Parent in the preseason and I haven't seen anything from O'Brien that leads me to believe that he is an upgrade over Parent. My only knock on Parent was his inability to get the puck out of the zone, but so does Bouillion...
Anderrson is good depth as a guy who can play on different lines and had speed.
I would say Shane O'Brien is much better than Ryan Parent. Getting the puck out of his own end is one of O'Brien's greatest attributes - he can carry the puck through traffic very effectively and likes to lead the rush from his own end.
In Vancouver the dmen are encouraged to be very aggressive in terms of pinching in and helping provide offense and O'Brien was always eager to do so - though you would never know it from his offensive production. If Trotz isn't as keen on seeing his dmen take a lot of risks it will limit O'Brien's effectiveness.
IMO Nashville fans will be pleasantly surprised with O'Brien's game. If he can keep his minor penalty numbers respectable you're looking at a very solid #5.
Bottom line, David Poile is probably one of the finest assessors of defensemen in the hockey universe. I dont totally understand this move, but I'll trust him until proven otherwise.
That's what it all boils down to in my opinion. While he doesn't hit a home run with every move, Poile's track record is solid and it will be interesting to see how this pans out.
