The Puck Stops Here
Jeff Schultz Developing
by PuckStopsHere on 01/19/10 at 10:24 AM ET
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Over the past couple of years, Jeff Schultz has been a whipping boy among Washington Capitals fans. He has been the team`s number six or seven defenceman and a relatively frequent healthy scratch. He has been given a lot of criticism for his apparent lack of effort. This season, as Schultz has the second highest +/- rating in the league (+27 - one point back of teammate Alexander Ovechkin), he is showing that he can be an above average NHL defenceman.
Schultz is a former first round draft pick. He was selected 27th overall by Washington in 2004. He is one of the larger defencemen in the game at 6‘6“ and 230 pounds. Historically these large defencemen tend to take a few years to fully develop into NHL players. As a comparison, reigning Norris Trophy winner Zdeno Chara (6‘9“ and 255 pounds) had an 11 point -27 +/- season in 65 games with the New York Islanders when he was Schultz`s age (23).
Defencemen are often late bloomers. Large defencemen tend to bloom later than smaller ones. Jeff Schultz is developing into a very good NHL defencemen, but it has been a long slow road to get there. This makes potential rookie of the year Tyler Myers look that much more impressive. He is a large defenceman who has been able to post an outstanding rookie season.
Jeff Schultz has become a significant player on the Washington Capitals defence. He is third in playing time among defencemen on the Capitals - behind Mike Green and Tom Poti. He is the shutdown style defenceman who has been given the most work for the Caps. As his +/- shows, he is doing very well in that role. Washington has an underrated defensive talent in Schultz.
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Tags: Jeff+Schultz, Tyler+Myers, Washington+Capitals,
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