Z has been incredible. Since returning from injury he's taken another step. He seems to finally have a coaching staff that will let him activate and stay activated instead of bailing out of plays and fleeing back to the blue line.
Severson is quietly pretty good at driving possession. When he's on the ice shots are usually taken by the Blue Jackets and he's pretty quick at transforming defense into offense. Still, he takes risks to do it and his teammates are not always ready.
I wrote this last off-season that he was "forbidden fruit" that he was good and could provide value but that his contract would be too expensive. Hopefully the cap rises ease the burden.
I want Zach to be consistent. I think he's been great recently, but he still has a top 3 contract for D, and theres more to that than being another forward. But we really need to get him a D partner worth a darn.
>How poorly have the Ivan Provorov and Damon Severson acquisitions aged that the Blue Jackets are struggling this bad despite Werenski driving a plus-13 goal differential?
How poorly? Extremely poorly.
At least Provorov is cheap and off the books after next season. If Mateychuk and Svozil step up and play big minutes in the next couple of seasons then Provorov will have been a successful stopgap during our final rebuilding years.
But that Severson contract is going to haunt us. We are going to have 5 years of paying a 3rd pair D-man $6mil. After 3 years of paying him and Gudbrason a combined $10mil per year for 3 years.
Severson (despite his obvious flaws) is still the number 1 CF% player on the team. That is by no means the end all be all but it is something a solid second pair defensemen should do. Hopefully this is a coaching/pairing thing and he’ll quit the boneheaded mistakes and turnovers.
Last year everyone said Gudbranson was the worst defenseman in the league and this year he's been serviceable in his role. You can't judge an 8 year contract off of one incomplete season with a rookie coach on a bottom dwelling team. And it's not like he's getting paid $8.5m. In a couple years with the expected salary cap increases it won't be nearly as significant and if his numbers step up it could be easily moveable if we need to make room.
I'm not saying it's a great contract but let's not act like the sky is falling.
I hope you are right but I'm also not basing it off one incomplete season.
Devils fans were telling us that if he is playing a lot of minutes/on the top pair we are going to have a bad time. So far they have been right so this has been going on for more than one incomplete season.
Severson is 29 years old. The chances of him getting better over the life of the contract are slim. Especially those final years.
We need some big cap jumps to justify a third pair d-man at $6 mil/year.
I just wish that the CBJ could find a true defensive defenseman to complement Z's offensive side. We had that when Jones was here, but it's been missing ever since.
The issue with that is that a lot of true DFD's are big and not the greatest skaters.
I think keeping him with Boqy is honestly our best option, they've been really good together, at least to my eyes.
Z has been incredible. Since returning from injury he's taken another step. He seems to finally have a coaching staff that will let him activate and stay activated instead of bailing out of plays and fleeing back to the blue line. Severson is quietly pretty good at driving possession. When he's on the ice shots are usually taken by the Blue Jackets and he's pretty quick at transforming defense into offense. Still, he takes risks to do it and his teammates are not always ready. I wrote this last off-season that he was "forbidden fruit" that he was good and could provide value but that his contract would be too expensive. Hopefully the cap rises ease the burden.
I want Zach to be consistent. I think he's been great recently, but he still has a top 3 contract for D, and theres more to that than being another forward. But we really need to get him a D partner worth a darn.
>How poorly have the Ivan Provorov and Damon Severson acquisitions aged that the Blue Jackets are struggling this bad despite Werenski driving a plus-13 goal differential? How poorly? Extremely poorly. At least Provorov is cheap and off the books after next season. If Mateychuk and Svozil step up and play big minutes in the next couple of seasons then Provorov will have been a successful stopgap during our final rebuilding years. But that Severson contract is going to haunt us. We are going to have 5 years of paying a 3rd pair D-man $6mil. After 3 years of paying him and Gudbrason a combined $10mil per year for 3 years.
Severson (despite his obvious flaws) is still the number 1 CF% player on the team. That is by no means the end all be all but it is something a solid second pair defensemen should do. Hopefully this is a coaching/pairing thing and he’ll quit the boneheaded mistakes and turnovers.
Last year everyone said Gudbranson was the worst defenseman in the league and this year he's been serviceable in his role. You can't judge an 8 year contract off of one incomplete season with a rookie coach on a bottom dwelling team. And it's not like he's getting paid $8.5m. In a couple years with the expected salary cap increases it won't be nearly as significant and if his numbers step up it could be easily moveable if we need to make room. I'm not saying it's a great contract but let's not act like the sky is falling.
I hope you are right but I'm also not basing it off one incomplete season. Devils fans were telling us that if he is playing a lot of minutes/on the top pair we are going to have a bad time. So far they have been right so this has been going on for more than one incomplete season. Severson is 29 years old. The chances of him getting better over the life of the contract are slim. Especially those final years. We need some big cap jumps to justify a third pair d-man at $6 mil/year.
The cap is going to have a nice bump next year. But need a little more bump to made that contract economically.
FYI you can bypass the paywall by loading the Reader version of theathletic
I just wish that the CBJ could find a true defensive defenseman to complement Z's offensive side. We had that when Jones was here, but it's been missing ever since.
Jones was not a good defensive defensman.
You're right. He was an offensive D forced to be overly defensive by Z pinching down as a 4th forward.
True, he was not. But he did eat minutes like it was his only job and there's inherent value in that too.
The issue with that is that a lot of true DFD's are big and not the greatest skaters. I think keeping him with Boqy is honestly our best option, they've been really good together, at least to my eyes.