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Move Tj Brodie Up To Wing


robrob1974

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What if we moved Brodie up to RW like San Jose did with Burns? I like his upside, but how long do we go about hoping his defensive game comes around? 

 

I am not being impatient, I guess I just wanted to start a new conversation thinking he could make a really good winger, especially after watching his wrap-around last night. With his speed and agility, I think he could make a really good one.

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I don't really follow what you're saying, Brodie's defensive game is solid. He makes mistakes as most defensemen (especially young guys) do. He's also very solid positionally, doesn't back down physically and skates hard to recover if he's caught too low in the offensive zone.

 

We thought JBo was meh defensively too once upon a time. We need Brodie on the backend, partly because we're not deep there and mostly because he brings an element that we don't really have on the backend. He picks his spots to get up in the rush better than anyone else on the team. Wideman doesn't have the same level of skating that Brodie does and Russell and Gio do their best work in the zone rather than in transition, although Gio's not shabby in that regard either. For the most part the others are outlet pass type guys, while Brodie is a puck rushing type who can pass the puck.

 

Burns was moved up because he's huge and also skates phenomenally for his size, and because he's got good offensive instincts and a good shot he creates space for other players to do their work. He's the ideal "mucker" as a forward, a guy who can play hard and draw attention and generally make it easier for the skill guys on his line to do their thing, while also having skills himself and the ability to pot in the dirty goals and sit in front of the net on the PP. Boston does this too with Chara on the PP, drop him in front because people then pay attention to him and because his size makes it harder to move him away.

 

Edmonton talks a lot about getting big skilled top 2 wingers. The guys they picture when they talk about those types of guys are the Brent Burns of the world. The guy is great at both positions, mostly because of that size/skill/skating/grit combo.

 

Brodie doesn't have that same advantage, thus it would be better for him to play on the backend where he gets to touch the puck more and use his skating to its fullest. It's like how Doughty plays defense, just not at the same level. He's never going to beat someone down but because he makes plays in transition, you may as well put him in a position to use those abilities. And you sure as heck aren't going to put him at center for that because center's a little too specialized, so the other possible position is D. And he's damn good at it. Brodie is in that same mold.

 

I want Brodie as part of our D moving forward, precisely because he's different from what we usually have on the backend. I think Gio as a #2 and Brodie as a #3 is a very solid core there, should we ever get a number 1 guy. We'd have the foundations of a good defense for quite a few years.

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I started to type up a post listing all of the reasons why moving Brodie to RW is a terrible idea.  But there are too many to list.  Other than you liking his wrap around and not liking his D game (which I don't agree with) what makes you think Brodie would be a better winger than D?

 

This doesn't work out very often.  The few times it does is when you have a really big D that is really strong offensively and not so much defensively.  None of that describes Brodie.  And he is a LH shot to boot. 

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What if we moved Brodie up to RW like San Jose did with Burns? I like his upside, but how long do we go about hoping his defensive game comes around? 

 

I am not being impatient, I guess I just wanted to start a new conversation thinking he could make a really good winger, especially after watching his wrap-around last night. With his speed and agility, I think he could make a really good one.

Few things here:

 

Burns shoots right which is why he was tried at the RW spot.

 

 

Brodie shoots L. If you were going to put him on any wing it would be preferable to place him on the Left side which just happens to be our strongest for depth.

 

As for the impatient part it sure sounds like it. What about all the time he spent in AHL and his time here learning the position? Dmen do not mature as quickly as wingers. Brodie still has a couple of years min of learning to go, before he actually matures in that position.

 

We don't really need a DMan taking up forward positions at this time. We have callups that would love the time here.

 

Who is going to take up Brodie's TOI? Breen?...lol

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I am really just bored. I know he's fine, and I am not looking to rush him or change him, but like you guys said, he has great speed, I think he'd do great on a wing as well. But you're right, Breen would make a better mobile defensemen. LOL Of course I am being sarcastic.

 

I know we have guys that want to be here. Not a lot of those guys are ready to be here… But that goes for our defensemen too. 

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I started to type up a post listing all of the reasons why moving Brodie to RW is a terrible idea.  But there are too many to list.  Other than you liking his wrap around and not liking his D game (which I don't agree with) what makes you think Brodie would be a better winger than D?

 

This doesn't work out very often.  The few times it does is when you have a really big D that is really strong offensively and not so much defensively.  None of that describes Brodie.  And he is a LH shot to boot. 

 

What hand does Giordano shoot with? Or Duncan Keith? What sides do they play on? How many left handed RW are there in the game? 

 

It's not just his wrap around goal, defensemen tend to defend better as well, so he'd be pretty good in the defensive zone, also, his speed is great and you can always use good speed up front. Although, I understand it's great to have it in the back-end too. 

I definitely don't think it's going to happen, it's really just an idea and something to talk about. The message boards are kind of getting boring lately, and everything is seemingly regurgitated over and over, the same ideas. I am pretty much in that boat too. 

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 Hehe TJ was sure looking like a winger in that last game some of the time. I like him on the back end though. 

He is just starting to mature into his role as a D man and IMO his ceiling is higher than most give him credit for.

 

Edit: I see him in three years as a top pairing, offensive Dman. That is my ceiling projection for him.  ;)

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If they do anything with TJ they should move him back to the L side and team him with Smid. He was more comfortable there and having Smid as the stay at home type would allow TJ the offensive creativity.

 

I think Giordano should be teamed with Wideman. I love Wideman but when he is with others he makes way to many mistakes trying to do to much.

 

Now just resign Russell and team him up with another tough stay at home type and I think we have a solid D corp.

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 Hehe TJ was sure looking like a winger in that last game some of the time. I like him on the back end though

He is just starting to mature into his role as a D man and IMO his ceiling is higher than most give him credit for.

 

Edit: I see him in three years as a top pairing, offensive Dman. That is my ceiling projection for him.  ;)

So you like TJ's back end? Hey TJ....

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One thing to remember about Burns is he was drafted and played junior as a forward. The Wild turned him into a Dman so the sharks putting him back there is not that much of a move. Moving a guy like Brodie whose played D for so many years is a terrible transition to make IMO epeciskky when he's just starting to develop his game

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I've already felt the Flames should've tried Anton Babchuk on RW.  Firstly, the Flames lacked Right Hand Shot RWs and second, Babchuk wasn't even a great backwards skating guy anyways.  He has a canon of a shot, a big body to play the boards, etc.  Let the guy fly down the wing and launch bombs at the net.  Instead, it was a waste to pay him $2-mil to sit in the press box while the Flames couldn't find a RW scoring threat behind Jarome Iginla.

 

That said Brodie is not forward material.  He's great until he enters the offensive zone. Then when it's time to grind and cycle along the boards where most of the game is played, he's kind of useless.  He's also not a Right Hand shot so suggesting him on the RW is a terrible idea.

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I've already felt the Flames should've tried Anton Babchuk on RW.  Firstly, the Flames lacked Right Hand Shot RWs and second, Babchuk wasn't even a great backwards skating guy anyways.  He has a canon of a shot, a big body to play the boards, etc.  Let the guy fly down the wing and launch bombs at the net.  Instead, it was a waste to pay him $2-mil to sit in the press box while the Flames couldn't find a RW scoring threat behind Jarome Iginla.

 

That said Brodie is not forward material.  He's great until he enters the offensive zone. Then when it's time to grind and cycle along the boards where most of the game is played, he's kind of useless.  He's also not a Right Hand shot so suggesting him on the RW is a terrible idea.

 

Although, I agree, but disagree at the same time. Brodie is awesome at skating around the boards. I loved it (last game on Saturday night) when he was skating around, behind the net. Nobody was touching him. It was awesome. But I see why we need him on Defense. It's really just a conversation I was starting for just because. 

 

Plus, I don't get why a RW is so terrible. There are so many players who play the right side on a left shot. It doesn't always matter what hand you play. I play both wings in my league. Kane plays RW and is a left shot. Hudler has… Plus, I was merely just suggesting forward, and RW was what I put… I always seem to remember him starting out of the zone from the right side on defence so, it's why I said the right side. But we do have a lot of left wingers. I just think it would be good to see his speed coming down a wing. But I am happy with him being a defensemen. 

 

Babs could have been a good try too. I think you gotta try it sometimes. They did that with Vandermeer and other Defensemen. 

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