He's good defensively but he is pretty bad offensively (worst than Schenn IMO). He fans on about 50% of shots he takes off a pass. However, he's easily our best defensive d-man and most consistent.
Gunnarsson has been playing with a hand injury much of this season but it seems to be better lately.
His offensive game is not terrible, he has slow hands with the puck in the o-zone, but is a very good passer. His offensive awareness could be better, but it's definitely not terrible.
if/when we make the playoffs, his value is gonna stand out even more. Knowing you can get 25+ minutes of mistake-free defense from a guy like that is worth its weight in gold to a coach.
there is nobody on this team worse offensively than schenn
If were going by all the players on the team, then I will name a few:
-Aulie
-Komisarek
- Steckel
-Crabb
From what I seen here, some of u guys are really underrating Schenn offensive game since he made a brutal turnover in the Panthers game that resulted in a embarrassing lost, which wasn't even entirely his fault because he was trying to create something going for the team that was lacking serious heart at that time. Schenn may not be the best at taking shots but he shot is pretty accurate and fast and also he can use his big body frame and that size of his well enough to keep puck-possessed on his stick until he sees a man opened. That shows at least limited offense for a shutdown d-men.
Everybody says Gunner has been awesome and is good for our top pairing, but everybody wants Sutter.... I also agree it would be good to get Sutter in the offseason if possible (obviously), but how would our D-pairings change? I would really like Schenn and Gardiner to stay a pairing because I think that pairing could be very special for us in the future.
P.S. I'm a big fan of gunner, he's been great this year!
His offensive game is not terrible, he has slow hands with the puck in the o-zone, but is a very good passer. His offensive awareness could be better, but it's definitely not terrible.
Yup, his decision with the shot in offensive zone isn't particularly good, but he is a solid passer and an average offensively when given a bit more time in the opposing team's end.
True. Though recently you can sometimes see him taking the blueline shot every once and while even with Dion (PP). He's much more accurate, but less powerful than Dion ('high and wide' syndrome still plaguing Dion, but I concede that he's improved a great deal since last year).
Well said. He's definately underrated around the league (not sure about amonst Leafs fans), but I don't think he's even the most underrated player on the team. Bozak, for instance, gets crapped on constantly (as does Kadri for his turnovers), and they both very effective at what they do.
Well said. He's definately underrated around the league (not sure about amonst Leafs fans), but I don't think he's even the most underrated player on the team. Bozak, for instance, gets crapped on constantly (as does Kadri for his turnovers), and they both very effective at what they do.
What MANY fail to realize is EVERY player turns over the puck. People literally expected Kadri to be perfect, and he's doing a great job now.
It's Ot, but I felt like that needed to be addressed
Gunnarsson is awesome and is not as bad offensively as everyone makes him out to be. He just needs to use his wrist shot rather than his slap shot more often because his wrist shot is dirty from a far distance.
Gunnarsson is awesome and is not as bad offensively as everyone makes him out to be. He just needs to use his wrist shot rather than his slap shot more often because his wrist shot is dirty from a far distance.
I believe as moose said, his wrist or hand has been injured this season.
Steady defenseman that eats a lot of minutes and has the potential of scoring 30+ points. He was good even in his rookie year but you just didn't know which Gunnar you were getting, but now he's just a lot more consistent game to game and easily our safest defenseman.
Seems like the "high and wide" Phaneuf is more accurate than Gunnar is, it's just that he shoots so much more that his misses become more noticable.
Edit: You're right, but we're talking about a 4% difference of accuracy, which in itself is negligible. Phaneuf also has nearly double the shots than Gunnar has, which makes this not an entirely reliable comparison. Regardless, Phaneuf is more 'accurate' for now, but we'll never know until Gunnar's shot count matches Phaneuf's. Let's look at previous years on the Leafs:
Again, we have about a 5-6% difference with Gunnar on top. The question is whether or not Gunnar could prove to be just as accurate or more accurate than Phaneuf should he match Phaneuf's shot count. I believe he could. Maybe I was a little exaggerative when I said 'much more' accurate, but I still stand by my point that Gunnar is generally more accurate.
No doubt that I would take Phaneuf's shot over Gunnar's for the current makeup of the team.
Gunnarsson isn't a legit #2 defenceman at this point in his career. But he's easily a top 4, and like others mentioned, definitely the most underrated player on the team because of his versatility and "no-flash" style of play.
Definitely would be one of the best defenses in the league. If he was added to the lineup the way the team is playing right now it could make us a lock for the playoffs.
We'd just need to get rid of Komisarek and his contract to resign Suter.
Gunnarsson is definitely under-rated, he is great along the boards and taking the body and taking away the stick of the opposing player. I went to the game on Thursday and he plays a lot LIKE Lidstrom. There was one play where he tied up the puck along the boards, used his body to shield the forward off and quickly passed it off to a teammate, it's small plays like that that are not very noticeable but come playoff time they're huge. His poise is huge for us.
