I get that, but to say he can’t be a solid #3 or 4 option cause he isn’t towering over is still a bad take.

It’s crazy considering how great he was. Definitely seemed a lot larger when I was younger as well.

Yup, this right here. They need to be targeting guys like Hakanpaa, Lyubushkin etc. for those other D-roles. I'm gonna wait for more tape to come in, but it's looking more and more like we are going to have to spend some money to keep Kovalenko here past 2024-2025. Can't afford 4 defenseman at over 5 mill on one team.

I didn't though. I said having your entire left side undersized is a mistake. It's a vulnerability that every other NHL coach will exploit.

He are his most common D partners at 5v5 last year:

Toews: 337:13
Johnson: 327:18
Byram: 299:31
Makar: 141:19
Manson: 80:58

His most common linemate was actually Mikko Rantanen at 459:09, and 392:04 with MacKinnon. Doesn't look like an AHL lineup to me.

You try dragging the carcass of Jack Johnson around the ice that much and see what happens. Again, his first half was pretty bad but he picked it up a lot over the second half; he's definitely trusted to play bigger minutes than Manson or Johnson or whomever is filling in when there are injuries.

Bo Byram is at least 6-1, 190; he's probably bigger now, 4 years after those measurements were taken

lots of the next year depends on landy. if he stays on ltir then with the roster above there's plenty of money to fill a roster, it's when landy comes back things get dicey. but it is still doable both ways without downgrading the D

Colorado's own website lists him as 185 cm which is slightly below 6'1. And that's below average for an NHL defenseman anyhow.

so is makar, so im not sure the avs are interested in size as the primary metric for defensemen.

no matter. the avs, despite all of this, have one of the 3-4 better bluelines in the nhl. they'll figure it out.