ya i don't think gallagher, danault and tatar would like having ZAR on the habs

The guy clearly doesn’t care about the game enough, and we aren’t trading Armia.

nope

Ya, no thanks. ZAR was the best defensive player in the NHL last year analytic wise. And had Selke votes. Armia isn’t an upgrade over what we have already.

https://jfresh.substack.com/p/zach-aston-reese-has-the-best-defensive

“If you follow or read the work of analysts who put a lot of stock in stats, you might have seen his name come up improbably in the Selke conversation. That’s because by models that track a player’s isolated impact on defence (as it was described above), Aston-Reese ranked best or second-best in the league across the board”.

Armia is not what the Pens need, especially for $2.6M. They have physical forwards, they have better defensive forwards. They need faceoff winning 3C, but for W, at $2.6M they need point production. Armia is not that. He gets decent ice time but produces little offense. He is even a bit of offensive black hole on the PP.

He is fine if you already have him, but I'd rather keep Reese and the cap space.

I don't think people value ZAR enough.
It's not just the defense or analytics.
What really impresses me about ZAR is how he has completely changed his game. He use to be an offensive player. But he nose to the grind changed his whole game to fit into the NHL. And he did it just as well. There is a lot of hidden offensive talent in there. He just hasn't really had that chance yet. But as someone who played hockey I really admire the work he's done into his game to completely change his style of play to fit in.