Malmo's Defense and Goalies season highlights

[Telkster 550]

Intro

       Many could agree Malmo's defense was no championship contender just a short while ago. Even after the Kaberle trade, I thought that there were plenty of defenses around the league with a better on paper group. Despite this, Malmo's Defense came 2nd best in the league for GAA. It's hard to put your finger on how they pulled this off, even with getting a couple dozen games in without Kaberle. I think it was a combo of strong offense that was super diverse upfront, to arguably the best goalie tandem in the league. Although Malmo's defense is still a young group, I think they slotted very nicely in spots and were able to outperform their combined tpe due to many of the reason's I've just listed. There were many great individual performances this year, so lets get right into it.

 

Defense

       Kaberle started the season in Toronto just fine with 22 points in 22 games. After the deal to Malmo, he picked up the pace even more with 62 points through his final 50 games this year. Due to the trade, the leaderboards wont tell you that Scotty should be sitting 7th in top 10 scoring for defenseman, which is a great achievement considering he switched teams halfway through. Next up is Kamenov, who took a small step back in the final season of his career, yet he still showed he's a very serviceable top 4 d man. he had 44 points in 72 games this year, and retires with 371 points over 504 regular season games. What a career for a guy who hovered around the 500 tpe mark. Sova posted a small boost from his rookie season of 40 points to 46 points this season. He also had 18 goals this season compared to last year with 8 goals, so he could quickly become known for being a 20 guy from the back end. Sova's expectations are still high for the future, as he still has #1 potential and could be the solidified #2 next year depending on what happens in the off-season.

 

      Unfortunately for Malmo, it looks as though both Wu and Wakaro have seemingly gone inactive for a month now. Wu's player should still be usable for next year as depth piece, as Wu did grab 51 points this season, but I don't think I can say the same for Wakaro's, who I expect to be released in the offseason. JaredN Jr had a solid rookie season throwing up 20 points this year, while his fellow rookie Ranogajec put up 29 points in his first year. with Kamenov leaving, I think Malmo need one more top 2-4 type d man if they wanna have a really strong defense next year. I think one of the rookie defenceman, or another depth piece could fill in as the #4 guy considering how strong the offense and goaltending positions are

 

Goalers

       Tretiak had a wobbly start to the season, but once Kaberle came and everything defense wise settled down a bit, Tretiak started to climb again in SV% and in GAA. He finished the year with a 47-16 record, while posting a .921 SV% and a 3.1 GAA. He will continue to be the starter in Malmo for the Foreseeable future. Carson posted a 6-3 record with a .913 SV% and a 3.09 GAA, numbers that you really love to see from your backup. 

 

That's it for this week. Lets keep trucking through the playoffs Nighthawks

 

@fromtheinside @jared @kevinscix @Snussu @v.2 @BigTittySmitty @ColeMrtz @jacobcarson877 @Molholt

 

 

Edited September 2, 2021 by Telkster

[jRuutu 2,483]

9.90/10

 

Nice article! I liked the intro. Interesting to read about players and how their season went compared to the previous one. The same goes for trades and how well everybody fits into systems, etc. The article is easy to read. Clean structure. As always, a picture at the top could be nice but otherwise no real suggestions from me.

Edited September 10, 2021 by jRuutu