I Just Hope The Introduction Of Gritty Doesn't Distract Everybody From The Fact That Ivan Provorov And Shayne Gostisbehere Will Both Be Norris Candidates This Year
So Gritty has obviously taken America by storm at this point. If you woke up this morning and turned on your television, chances are you saw Gritty on damn near every channel. He’s all anybody can talk about. He’s a master of karate and friendship for everyone. But the only thing that worries me about Gritty is I’m afraid of how much attention is being paid to him instead of what is about to happen with the Flyers blueline.
Many people have rightfully been gushing over the San Jose blueline recently now that they’ve added Erik Karlsson to an already loaded lineup of Brent Burns, Marc-Edourd Vlasic and Brenden Dillon. You’re not going to find anybody to argue the fact that San Jose is a total wagon. But now when people think about the Flyers, they are going to immediately think about Gritty. And when people think about the Norris Trophy, they’re going to immediately think about San Jose. All of a sudden the end of the season is going to be here and I just need everybody to be prepared for when Ivan Provorov and Shayne Gostisbehere are both legitimate Norris candidates and at least one of them ends up being a finalist. I just don’t want this news to take everybody by surprise at the end of the season. That would break my heart.
The Norris Trophy is awarded to the NHL’s top defenseman every year but historically speaking, it typically goes to the best offensive defenseman in the league. It’s always tough to quantify how much a guy actually does in his own defensive end and it’s much easier to just go off of points. So as long as history continues to repeat itself, well the only thing that is keeping Shayne Gostisbehere from being a 30-goal scorer as a defenseman in the National Hockey League is the fact that sometimes the puck hits the crossbar and goes up instead of rocketing back down.
If they would just make the nets about an inch taller, I think Shayne Gostisbehere’s shooting percentage would end up somewhere around 75% and that’s just because 25% of his shots would be for intended rebounds. Ghost has been letting it fly so far this preseason and the shot looks about as dialed in as it can be. But for a while, the biggest knock on Ghost was that he was basically “just a forward playing on the blueline”. Which was kind of true his first couple seasons in the league but last year especially we saw Shayne Gostisbehere become more of an impact player without the puck on his stick. And it just so happened that he finished 10th in Norris voting last year after adding focusing more on that aspect of his game. And now heading into this season with the plan being to play alongside of Ivan Provorov for most of the year?
He’s only going to get better defensively while also filling up the back of the net. There’s not a better equation to win the Norris than that one right there.
And as for Ivan Provorov? Well it’s kind of sad right now because the days of being able to call him underrated are numbered. He’s just 21 years old and is already the best defenseman on the Flyers roster. Which, for a while, wouldn’t have been considered much of an accomplishment. But the transition from the flaming garbage the Flyers’ blueline used to be into the underclassmen version of San Jose/Nashville is almost complete. So he’s only 21, he’s already considered one of the most underrated defensemen in the league and was named the #1 player to have a breakout year this season by the NHL.
He logged an average of 24:09 TOI last season and he’s been doing plenty of this while also having to carry Andrew MacDonald around with him on the ice. He was also closer to 25 minutes per night in the playoffs and he was playing with a separated shoulder. He’s everything you want in a true #1 defenseman. He eats up ice time and would stay out there 60 minutes a night if you wanted him to. You never have to worry about gap control with him and rarely does anybody get an easy zone entry if they’re going up against him at the blueline.
If you want to test him along the boards, he’ll take your lunch there as well. Unfortunately at the expense of a couple of units like Vlad Tarasenko and Leon Draisaitl
He’ll jump start offense by snapping off some tape-to-tape stretch passes and then when it comes time to putting the puck in the back of the net, he can do that too.
He’s a menace on every single inch of the ice and he’s still just getting better. So it really isn’t an “if” Ivan Provorov will win a Norris Trophy but more of a “when”.
So that’s all I’m here to talk about today. I just need everybody to realize that there’s a very real chance that the Flyers will have 2 defenseman finish at least in the top 10 of Norris Trophy voting this year and a very real chance that one of them will be a finalist. I just don’t want Gritty to distract everybody from the inevitable, no matter how awesome he may be.