The Quest for Defense

I have read many end-of-season reports extoling the virtues of DeMelo's defensive play, and him on the third pairing (or even on the second beside Vladislav Gavrikov) would work well.

"... he takes the phrase “stay-at-home defenceman” to the extreme."

"DeMelo’s role is not flashy, and there are no highlight reel clips of what he provides on a nightly basis, but his contributions are necessary to any success the Jets will enjoy next season."

If you looked through ACGM a couple of days ago, I made a trade exactly like this. Red Wings fans thought the value was okay, but the timing was off. At the deadline (and if Maatta - Hronek doesn't work), this would be acceptable.

"Detroit gladly accepts at the Trade Deadline, But not before we need Maatta on our 2nd pairing with Hronek."

- @HockeyIsMyPassion61

"The 2nd + Bean being RFA gives us some flexibility for a player we aren't planning on keeping anyway. Our defense isn't supposed to be ready for another three or four years anyway so we can accept a tiny bit worse this year, we're still way better than last season."

- @Billy12Bob

Teddy had the second-highest shorthanded power rating (SHR) from morehockeystats.com with 393 (second only to Sean Durzi's 453). In terms of more well-known stats, he had a shorthanded faceoff percentage of 48.85% (64 of 131 from the dot), and only gave up 7 PPGs against (better than the next best forward (Ryan Nugent-Hopkins)'s 10). I feel like he'd be a good asset for a PK that was somewhat shaky last year.