He's just a one way Dman. Pure offense, but a complete liability defensively. The reason he did so well initially is because no one expected it. Teams have adjusted to his style of play and know how to combat it. He's still a strong skater and can play the PP, but truly a defensive liability.

He's strictly an offensive dman, in Chicago he was playing with Keith while he was still an excellent 2-way guy.

I've had the "privilege" to watch him on my team for a few games and I've rarely seen a defenseman making such poor piss decisions in the neutral and defensive zones. He's a decent guy to have on your PP2, but you're at risk everytime he's on the ice at 5v5, I imagine Trotz would play him 30 seconds per night.

Offense 100%. Him and Kane got along, I'd think him and Barzal would do a lot of damage together. Dont think he can hit 60 again but 30-40 points isnt a bad bet IF you let him play his game.

What I’m hearing is we get Nick Leddy but worse

Lol potentially. I like the signing though. No risk at all - let's see what Trotz is able to do with him. Don't think this rules out a trade. Or Chara signing

Trust me, Keith was not still excellent 2 way when playing with Gus.

You would think that but he's a different type of player than Leddy. He's much better on the power play since he's actually a threat to shoot, which Leddy wasn't. He's more aggressive in the offensive zone 5v5 too. Defensively, yes, he's a liability, perhaps more so than Leddy. With Leddy I felt it was more he's just a low IQ player, while Gus just didn't really care about defense (relative to how much he cares about offense). I actually think he'll see some improvement defensively under Trotz if he can have it drilled into him and be trusted with a greater role defensively, whereas Leddy was just kinda incapable of playing that role.

If all goes well, there's no reason why Gustafsson can't be a competent second pairing defenseman imo, who makes up for his defensive deficiencies with production on the power play. I know that sounds like Leddy, but I think the way Gus will go about doing it (if he makes the team of course) will be much different

EDIT: Just realized that Gus is gonna have to shave, which is going to be really, really weird...

What would the D pairs be with chara

Chara/Greene *should* share LD3 responsibilities. Each get 40 something games of regular season. Good depth if someone went down. Gustafsson/trade/Salo would spell in at LD2. Think there are very few games that Greene and Chara would be in during the same time

Hopefully none.

It wasn't an "unbelievable season". He can put up points but is a strait up liability on defence. Plain and simple