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FYI.
Persson started and played very well on the Oilers top pairing with Klefbom. He was more a victim of surprising depth and the organization wanting to spread their ice time around.
For the quality of competition he was facing he was very good. Bear was just that much better. Benning, Larsson, Russell had more experience and play a tougher more defensive style game.
The Oilers wanted a more experienced depth puck mover on the blue line for the playoffs thus why they signed Green.
Personally I would take Persson over Green or Jones from what I saw. Holland's obviously likes Green and Jones more tho. Personal preference imo rather than a performance based reason.
While Persson was in the line up the D looked fantastic and their record was awesome. Once Larsson came back from injury they just never even gave him a chance.
He is not a great defender in his own zone but he still managed to move it deceny under pressure and his puck moving overall was exceptional.
I've seen many worse defensemen have much longer nhl careers. Pure puck movers have a limited niche in the nhl but with the way the game is moving I'm very surprised he is not getting another shot. His game is far more suited to the current nhl than the AHL. |
