I think it's clear we should nominate Picard for President.
He has the highest plus minus on the entire team which I am sure some who endlessly hate on him will be surprised with, and is a point per game so far, I think he has played very well actually, a few defence side mistakes, but these have been hugely overblown and we have won very single game he has played in, so I am very confident in him. He has played very physical, he makes great plays, moves the puck well, I like him a lot, great shot. He will improve more and more as time goes on.
Picard's play thus far is a good thing, anyway you slice it. Obviously, it can only make it easier for Murray to move him. And if Picard continues to play at this level over the longer stretch, he becomes a very cheap top 4 Dman that Murray wants to keep. In that case, the only one crying should be Brian Lee.
As much as I have despised Picard in the past there is simply no denying he's been very useful so far.
However I haven't been able to watch any of the games in their entirety so I can't really comment on his overall play: he's always had decent to good offensive talents but his defensive play is what really made me think so little of him. McCabe once led the league in points for dmen but that didn't change the fact that he was a pretty terrible defenseman.
I'll have to be able to watch a full game before I can fully reevaluate my opinion of Picard.
Not many Sens fans put faith into Picard... He was a huge prospect in his early years, and was projected to put up 40+points in his prime. He settled down a littl bit, but I'm willing to bet that in Cloustons system this year, he can hit 30-40. Many people forget that he was the main piece in the Meszaros deal, and Murray has an A+++++ when dealing with prospects.
His Hockeys future grade was 7.0 B if anyone is wondering.
When Picard was paired with Kuba he was one of the few highlights of the Hartsburg era. The kid is good, albeit one dimensional at the moment. His defensive game needs lots of work, but what young defenseman doesn't? Honestly with the way Carkner and Picard have played I'd hope that Clouston moves Karlsson down when Kuba returns. I'd still prefer Lee in there too, but our D is playing surprisingly well at the moment so why rock the boat too much.
He has the highest plus minus on the entire team which I am sure some who endlessly hate on him will be surprised with, and is a point per game so far, I think he has played very well actually, a few defence side mistakes, but these have been hugely overblown and we have won very single game he has played in, so I am very confident in him. He has played very physical, he makes great plays, moves the puck well, I like him a lot, great shot. He will improve more and more as time goes on.
I've seen Marc Staal (who is super-hyped on HF) make terrible defensive mistakes too. Every D-man tend to make some from time to time. If Picard wants to stick in the NHL, he only has to cut on the risky plays, improve his decision making in the defensive zone. The rest of his game is fine, could use his body to throw a bit of nasty checks, which should come with confidence... I think Clouston could make him a great player.
Picard, Karlsson, Lee, Campoli, high potential, currently flawed, all still developing and needing to be developed. Good competition. Someone take that role and run with it, please, so we can finally overpay there.
Picard's +/- could be partially due to not playing in the Rangers game.
And that we're only 4 games into the season.... I mean yeah, his +/- is great, but if you actually watched the game, he doesn't have it because of his defensive play. There were many mistakes, more than Karlsson and Campoli, he was just lucky they haven't ended up in the back of the net yet.
