Grabner was the fastest skater THAT SKATED. That's all. He's fast. You know what else he is? A perimeter player.
We have lots of Grabner-esque players in our system.
But Grabner was not going to succeed with the Canucks. Nor the Panthers. He didn't fit into the respective systems. With the Islanders he's allowed to wheel and deal with little to no defensive liability and more ice time (cause the top six is shallow). That's why he's scoring more goals.
Is he a good player? Sure he's alright. Will he be a consistent NHLer? Maybe, he might be a late bloomer.
Grabner was the fastest skater THAT SKATED. That's all. He's fast. You know what else he is? A perimeter player.
We have lots of Grabner-esque players in our system.
But Grabner was not going to succeed with the Canucks. Nor the Panthers. He didn't fit into the respective systems. With the Islanders he's allowed to wheel and deal with little to no defensive liability and more ice time (cause the top six is shallow). That's why he's scoring more goals.
Is he a good player? Sure he's alright. Will he be a consistent NHLer? Maybe, he might be a late bloomer.
Big loss? Nah, we'll live.
Need for this thread? Nope.
it's these kind of comments that I take a little issue with as it seems rather short sighted. For the Islanders, he kills penalties and plays in a defensive system. It's unfair to pigeonhole Grabner as a specific type of player.
it's these kind of comments that I take a little issue with as it seems rather short sighted. For the Islanders, he kills penalties and plays in a defensive system. It's unfair to pigeonhole Grabner as a specific type of player.
Not necessarily. He does that because the Islanders really don't have much depth. Trent Hunter would be eating that ice time but he's injured.
Count me in as someone who didn't predict that Grabner would be useless and bust after leaving, but didn't complain about the trade.
He'd still be a massive upgrade on Tambellini at this point, IMO.
A bag of dog crap on fire is a massive upgrade over Tambellini. Thank God he is off the Island. For whatever reason, he just never seems to put it all together.
but the fact is, he's a successful penalty killer with the Isles
That doesn't say anything about the way he plays 5-on-5 though. From what I've seen, Islanders are perfectly happy to play a very loose 5-on-5 system and obviously that's going to suit Grabner, but it's not the kind of system they can keep playing if they want to win.
Anyone that was at least a little objective was saddened by the loss of Grabner, but getting Ballard back was worth it. Almost as sad as I was when I opened this thread.
That doesn't say anything about the way he plays 5-on-5 though. From what I've seen, Islanders are perfectly happy to play a very loose 5-on-5 system and obviously that's going to suit Grabner, but it's not the kind of system they can keep playing if they want to win.
I don't watch a lot of Isles games but from what I can see from their game against the Canucks, he didn't look particularly defensively deficient so there's no reason to believe he is. If he's not defensively deficient, I can't see why he can't succeed on the Canucks. They may have given him more opportunity (ice time), but that's not to say he wouldn't have succeeded on the Canucks.
I LOL at all the people who call for MG's head every time Grabner scores a goal. We knew he had some potential to put up 20 goals but this is real life here people our need for Defense was greater than our need for a POTENTIAL 2nd line winger and you HAVE to give to recieve.
I hope Grabbs has a great career and wish him luck, but the Canucks still make that trade everyday
Grabner was the fastest skater THAT SKATED. That's all. He's fast. You know what else he is? A perimeter player.
We have lots of Grabner-esque players in our system.
But Grabner was not going to succeed with the Canucks. Nor the Panthers. He didn't fit into the respective systems. With the Islanders he's allowed to wheel and deal with little to no defensive liability and more ice time (cause the top six is shallow). That's why he's scoring more goals.
Is he a good player? Sure he's alright. Will he be a consistent NHLer? Maybe, he might be a late bloomer.
Big loss? Nah, we'll live.
Need for this thread? Nope.
Simply put Grabner was not the savior he was hyped to be last year and he was not just a spare part everyone said he was after getting cut by Florida.
He may have been soft as can be and made the odd mistake but for the most part he was alright defensively... usually he played fairly safe positionally, covered for pinching Dmen, or used his speed to get back in the play when he made mistakes, and was pretty good at getting puck back on the back check. Just look at his takeaway stats; 13 in 20 games last year and on pace for about 55 this year.
If he wasn't traded he had a really good chance to be a regular with the club if he could learn to balance out his hot/cold play but with the way injuries have hit the team for the past couple years so Gillis traded him away to get some more durability on the back end.
I have no problem with the move since it looks like the right one with major injuries on the back end again. Also they have a few players in the system who could fill his role in a year or two but I don't think any of them really have the same skill set, off the charts speed with a scoring touch, like Grabner.
So I guess Jonas Andersson has 4 points in 4 games in the KHL.
Edit: Schaefer over a PPG in the DEL, too. Good to see that these guys are having success. I think it looks good on the Canucks that they were willing to let them move on.
Last edited by RobertKron: 02-07-2011 at 02:41 PM.
Count me as part of the group that was happy we got Ballard but still disappointed we had to give up Grabner. He showed encouraging potential and appeared to have real chemistry with our second line.
He's on pace for more goals than anyone on this team not named Daniel Sedin or Ryan Kesler. I can't agree with or refute the suggestions he's a perimeter player because I havn't seen him play even one game this season but it's hard to argue with his production.
Has there ever been any information as to why Florida gave him up for nothing? I mean I know he didn't have a productive camp but was it really so bad?
Quote:
Originally Posted by jammyrft
I LOL at all the people who call for MG's head every time Grabner scores a goal. We knew he had some potential to put up 20 goals but this is real life here people our need for Defense was greater than our need for a POTENTIAL 2nd line winger and you HAVE to give to recieve.
I hope Grabbs has a great career and wish him luck, but the Canucks still make that trade everyday
Grabner's 22/23 years old but has played less than 82 regular season games at the NHL level and is already on pace for nearly 30 goals. At this point it appears his potential might be higher than that of a 2nd line winger at least from my point of view.
Note: I'm not saying we shouldn't have made the trade.
I'm a big fan of Grabner, and was upset that he was traded away. I'm not against the trade we made, but it really sucked to see him leave.
I'm a little confused with all the hatred towards this kid. Whatever the Moose/Canucks asked him to do, he did.
He was asked to improve his defensive game, he did so. He improved his compete level when it was questioned, played on whatever line he was told to. I don't think I've heard of any reports about him complaining about anything here with Vancouver or at any time in his career
Where is the hate coming from?
Watch the kid play. He isn't exactly poor defensively , infact I believe he is quite good defensively. He is very good on the forecheck and isn't afraid to cut to the middle when he has the chance to. He isn't a power forward and won't ever put up the greatest assist totals but the kid is showing major promise.
He is exactly what he was drafted to be, a speedy goal scoring winger. Whats most impressive is how he is putting up these numbers. He's tied for 10th in the NHL for even strength goals with 17 now , and only gets 29 seconds of PP time a game.
It's good for him but it still doesn't necessarily mean he'd have scored 19 goals on this team. Take Jason Blake for example. Scored a bunch of goals as an Islander and has been a marginal player everywhere else. Or Olli Jokinen. Put up huge numbers in Florida and got exposed when he left.
I'm not sure that criticism of Grabner = hate. He was a no show every training camp. That's why Florida gave up on him because he showed nothing. Just because people didn't believe in him doesn't mean they wish him ill.
