’09-10 Player Reviews: Carl Gunnarsson
We’ve partnered up with Pension Plan Puppets to bring to you a Player Review series, where we will be evaluating and grading the 2009-10 season for every Leaf who featured in a significant number of games for the Blue and White last season, with an eye towards 2010-11. Next up we feature Carl Gunnarsson, profiled by PPP:
“The Summary: It has become almost comical to hear Brian Burke try to defend JFJ at every turn. I wonder if Burke took the parody twitter account to heart and feels obligated to counteract the impression that he thought that JFJ was ‘retarded’ when the opportunity arises. He does it whenever Tomas Kaberle’s limited no-trade clause is used and he will probably start doing it whenever Carl Gunnarsson is mentioned. I wonder if JFJ might have had a successful career with the Leafs if he had just been in charge of scouting.
The Good
Anytime you get a 7th round pick facing the third toughest competition alongside the worst teammates you’ve done something right with your player development. Throw in having the third best GVT among defencemenon your club and taking the fewest offensive zone face-offs and you might have a player on your hands. His Corsi relative to his competition is also 3rd among defencemen and considering his zone start is actually quite impressive. But the best part is that despite all of this he is still paid the least among the defencemen.
More here.
The Discussion
What do the Maple Leafs do with Carl Gunnarsson? Do they re-sign him as soon as possible or do they wait to see if he will regress in his second season?
Audience Participation
Rate Gunnarsson below on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the best) based on his performance relative to his potential and your expectations for the season.
