Best I can tell, Dillen is a stay at home, tougher, DEFENSIVE defenseman.
He’s actually pretty BIG, at least relative to our D men.
Depending on where you get your stats, He is between 6’ 3”, 215 OR 6’ 4”, 225!
He would then be our biggest D man overall.
GMBM has been routinely looking for these stay at home D guys, ever since the Shattenkirk trade BUST!!
An article in the Caps app suggests that Kempny may be moved down to 2nd pairing, giving Dillen a serious look, paired with Carlson.
This looks to me like management prioritizing the defensive demise, especially as it pertains to the Carlson/Kempny #1 pairing!
Let’s remember that when Kempny first arrived, the big news was how he ELEVATED the defensive play on the Carlson, #1 D line, retrieving, and handling, at least 75-80% of pucks entering our zone, to be collected, and sent back up the other way!
This was by design, from management, which took away much of the potential for a Carlson “mistake”, improving our ability to bring the puck up from our zone, AND allowing Carlson to become more involved with improving his offensive skills, which was also SANCTIONED, by management!
The Carlson/Kempny experiment, proved to be a GREAT decision, by GMBM, and he received huge accolades for making the trade, for a number of good reasons, to include winning the CUP!!
THEN....Kempny suffered a MAJOR, debilitating injury!
All the while, Carlson had been receiving “specialized”, offensive training, all through the 2018-2019 season, and we started to see Carlson’s training start to pay off, and even get better, during the 1st half of this 2019-2020 season!
Hell... Carlson led the entire league in points, for defenseman, until getting passed sometime in January 2020!
One problem though....Upon Kempnys return this season, we are seeing that he is not the same Mikal Kempny, that we had seen PRIOR to his injury!
He is noticeably slower, and different! He is surely, a worse player, than he was, and in most all the phases of his game! I can only guess, as I have no proof in reading anything recently, about his physical condition, but it is the most logical of reasons, to assume that it is injury related.
Why the emphasis about Kempnys issues? Well, IMO, it directly relates to John Carlson’s performance on BOTH sides of the ice!
Bare with me here, in that if Kempny is LESS effective, NOW, in his defensive responsibilities, and was shouldering quite a bit more of the defensive load, then, logically, Carlson is exposed to NOW, having to shoulder MORE of the D load, which, by nature, allows Carly LESS time to affect his offensive play!
We have certainly seen Carly’s production numbers tank since early January! Additionally we see Carlson’s poor defensive skills, being highly EXPOSED again, relative to Kempnys shortcomings, and they are many from Kempny, also!! ( just talking about our #1 D pairing, specifically. I’m fully aware our entire D has bad issues right now, so there’s plenty of blame to go around)!!
THIS, I believe, may be what GMBM had in mind with obtaining Brenden Dillen! AND why we just might see how our new recruit fits with Mr. John Carlson!
I sure hope the new guy has some speed. He’s going to need it back there with Johnny Norris as his sidekick!😁
Rush