Ghost a good buy-low

[lucafen4]

Time will answer all.

[SeaDawg]

Wow - you really want to find a reason to think Ghost will do well. I'm here to tell you he won't, and Vigneault's coaching system will have a lot to do with it.

Reminds me of fetch and Mean Girls. Put it to rest - fetch isn't going to happen!

I don't know, Brisboise, Aucoin, Ehrhoff, etc...not a lot of exciting dmen in the list. Seems like a bit of a weak argument.

That said, maybe you know more about AV's teams PP production than I do. If you tell me that AV's teams have historically been among the lowest scoring teams on the PP, then maybe I will buy into your theory. Until then, I'm pretty sure Gostisbehere's productivity is going to be directly tied to the team's power play productivity and not its even strength productivity, which no doubt will be hampered by AV's tendency to spread out the playing time (as you mention in your column).

[lucafen4]

I don't know, Brisboise, Aucoin, Ehrhoff, etc...not a lot of exciting dmen in the list. Seems like a bit of a weak argument.

That said, maybe you know more about AV's teams PP production than I do. If you tell me that AV's teams have historically been among the lowest scoring teams on the PP, then maybe I will buy into your theory. Until then, I'm pretty sure Gostisbehere's productivity is going to be directly tied to the team's power play productivity and not its even strength productivity, which no doubt will be hampered by AV's tendency to spread out the playing time (as you mention in your column).

Im' pretty certain Vancouver has a top 3-4 PP team in 08/09, 09/10, 10/11

[RizzeeDizzee]

I don't know, Brisboise, Aucoin, Ehrhoff, etc...not a lot of exciting dmen in the list. Seems like a bit of a weak argument.

That said, maybe you know more about AV's teams PP production than I do. If you tell me that AV's teams have historically been among the lowest scoring teams on the PP, then maybe I will buy into your theory. Until then, I'm pretty sure Gostisbehere's productivity is going to be directly tied to the team's power play productivity and not its even strength productivity, which no doubt will be hampered by AV's tendency to spread out the playing time (as you mention in your column).

Here's how his teams fared on the PP

Montreal in 1997-98 = 3rd in PP conversation percentage
Montreal in 1998-99 = 16th
Montreal in 1999-00 = 13th
Vancouver in 2006-07 = 20th
Vancouver in 2007-08 = 18th
Vancouver in 2008-09 = 17th
Vancouver in 2009-10 = 6th
Vancouver in 2010-11 = 1st
Rangers in 2013-14 = 15th
Rangers in 2014-15 = 21st
Rangers in 2015-16 = 14th
Rangers in 2016-17 = 11th
Rangers in 2017-18 = 14th

All in all, pretty good! But then where's the defenseman scoring to go along with it? Ever see Moneyball? There's a line where it says "if he's a good hitter how come he doesn't hit good?" If Vigneault's systems did so well on the PP, where was the resultant effect on defenseman scoring? I get that he didn't have an Erik Karlsson or other truly elite d-man playing for him, but these situations were conductive to a rearguard scoring well and yet it still didn't happen. Says a lot, at least to me.

[SeaDawg]

There's no Karlsson in that list, but also no one close to Gostisbehere either. It is actually shocking to me how unimpressive the list of AV's dmen have been.

Anyway, you may be correct but I'm not convinced. I would be more likely to side with you if there were at least a few offensive dmen who had success elsewhere but not under AV.

[hockeymanG23]

I believe Therrien is running the PP and he’s had quite a few high scoring D over the years. Not sure if that changes anyone’s concerns regarding Vigneault.

He’s a good buy-low option IMO.