Andy Greene Out; What's it mean for the Devils and who'll have to step up?

I agree that there isn’t much to be concerned about here. The defense has fallen apart like a cheap suit night after night, and that’s not going to get any worse with another young guy in the lineup whether it be Fraser, Tao, or Urbom. There will still be giveaways, SHGA, and plenty of things to be frustrated about.

Without being completely negative – we will, at least, get to see what these guys are made out of for a little bit as you said. That’s something the fans have been wanting for a while now.

If all else fails, we can see if Sestito will play D for a few weeks too. Bring some RAW ENERGY to the blueline.

I personally like Greene very much, but I’ve been disapointed with his performance thus far. He brings some ffense to the table – not as much as we were hoping for – but it is still something. Perhaps letting him rest for about a month and a half to get fully heatlthy will help his contributations when he comes back.

Until then, I think it’ll be interesting to see who plays in the case of Tao and Urbom. I personally like Urbom better, but I don’t think he is really an offensive type of defenseman, rather he looks more like a defensive defenseman. I would be ecstatic if Tao could produce like he did last season, and I hope that he could stick as a regular defender. I’m not alll too high on Salvador right now, and if Tao could really play well, perhaps we can see a shake up of sorts temporarily, or even longer.

I would like to bring up something? Does anybody see a possibility that we may be trading some ‘excess’ defenseman that we have. I mean, look at it this way, we have probably one of the best group of defensive prospects in the league. Lou might just pull off a trade that could land us a good player that would make the team better, particullary a forward… a right winger perhaps? Even a proven defenseman like Ryan Suter could be a deal, although he will be a free agent next offseason. We are going to have some cap space opening up, and a signing of Ryan Suter along with Parise would certainly be a big move.

I know at this point people are going to begin telling me that Nashville isn’t going to trade Suter. Well, that isn’t something guaranteed. Nashville historically aren’t big spenders. Yes, they just locked up Rinne longterm, and they have one more year of arrbitration with Shea Weber before he has to either be locked up too, or traded. Now they’re going to be faced with a hard decision of what to do. I recently read another article here on SBNation mentioning that although Suter has said he would like to stick with Nashville, that he might be seeking a big payday.

My point is… if Nashville isn’t going to sign him to an extension, they are likely to trade him for the best deal, which is very likely to be for a package of good prospects. We are mentioned in that article. Does that mean that we are a candidate for him? Perhaps, but not necessarily. Still, I think that there is a good chance that Lou pulls a deal that would net us somebody who will be able to contibute to the team for years to come.

I know that I’m close to being obssessed with us acquiring Ryan Suter, as I like him as a player very much. All that I’m trying to say that it is possible that such a move could happen…

Tao and Greene are incredibly similar players (both 5’11", 185 lbs vs 190 lbs, both from the greater Detroit area). Tao is just 4 years younger (25) and has yet to prove himself as an NHL player.

I really did like the flashes of ability we saw from Tao early last year while the rest of the team was just plain awful. From my subjective viewing, on many nights he was one of the only guys on the team giving it his all. In his 17 games up at the NHL level last year he managed ~.3/points per game, which, given the team’s play as a whole, wasn’t all that bad. I think what really speaks to his performance is the 20:40 TOI/g he was getting as a rookie. The thing is, he really didn’t look that amazing in preseason this year. My read on the situation is that, given a chance to play, Tao has an opportunity to prove himself, and really could be a complete lateral move and almost literally step right into Greene’s skates. What’s more likely, though, is that Tao will be an Andy Green Lite™ with slightly less defensive awareness and slightly lower point production. The worst case scenario is that Tao hasn’t worked out the kinks and performs around his preseason level, which was not that great if I recall correctly.

I didn’t care much for Urbom in what I saw from him in 2010-11. The games he has been up this season, though, I think have been much better. Looking back at his stats for this year, it looks like he got rocked against Boston (only 7:19 TOI), I can’t remember the game, but we lost 1-4 and he went -2 so I’m assuming there was some bad D in there. I like that he is a bigger body than Greene and Tao (6’3" 196lbs) and is more of a defensive player. He’s got more goals than Greene this season (with 1), but that’s his only point in 8 NHL games. I think Urbom is a better option at the moment unless Tao can return to his form from last season. If Tao is clicking and the rest of the team is playing well too, I think he could top his production from last season. If he can show his offensive upside and isn’t a defensive liability in a D corps that is already shaky, I think Tao could even be a step up from Greene. However, I think Urbom might be the safer choice to just shore up the Defense. It’s definitely riskier to use Tao, but if he can produce on offense he might help our weak 2.37 goals per game.

In sum, I think this injury gives some of our fringe youth players a chance to prove themselves. That said, I’m not sure which player fits best right now. Our offensive production hasn’t been great, but our defense has been inconsistent too. Tao could help on offense (maybe) and Urbom could help on defense (maybe).

On a related note I haven’t loved Fraser’s play. Most of the time he looks too slow to me and gets caught out of position. He’s a big body, but there has to be some positive to him being on the ice other than just his size cough cough Jansen cough cough.

It helps that the devils shooting percentage is a defense high 12.74% when Greene is on the ice.

At 0 goals on 19 shots, he has done absolutely nothing to contribute to this stat.

Who out of Fraser, Taormina, and Urbom would you want to see?

I think we’ll see Taormina in Grene’s skates and Urbom will have to try to fill A-train’s. Fraser can watch from the stands and then go to Albany when someone else gets healthy.

There’s a 3-word explanation for Greene’s lack of success this year. No Jacques Lemaire.