What's the Maatta with Olli

[nossagog]

So this is Olli Maatta's fourth year in the NHL, and he still has his up and down moments, but something has bothered me the past season plus that keeps rearing its head as I watch him play.  At 22 years old, he's the slowest member of the Pens defense and gets exposed by fast teams where forwards easily speed by him.  

 

I had hoped that off season conditioning and work over the past two off seasons could help his speed, but alas, he's still the same paced skated as he has been.   The fact got me wondering, at 22 years old, are you locked in genetically at how fast you are able to skate and play the game.  Typically players are faster as they are young and need to build strength and bulk, especially as a defender, to take the daily riggers of the game. But how do you, or can you, work to make yourself a faster skater with the little time that you have in the off seasons.

 

Don't get me wrong, I think Olli still has upside, but I think he is going to have to round himself into a more physical defensemen that has to play a more positional game to compensate for his lack of skating speed. But he's not a physical player at the moment. 

 

So the big question, does that fit into the speed and puck moving game that the Pens rely on from their defense in the long term?  If not, what trade value is there in Olli Maatta.  I think that at this point he has some good value as he is only 22 and has 3 years experience in the NHL already at the blue line.    

 

 

[Podein25]

3 hours ago, nossagog said:

If not, what trade value is there in Olli Maatta.

 

Flyers will trade you Scott Laughton for Olli straight up. 

[Polaris922]

10 hours ago, nossagog said:

So this is Olli Maatta's fourth year in the NHL, and he still has his up and down moments, but something has bothered me the past season plus that keeps rearing its head as I watch him play.  At 22 years old, he's the slowest member of the Pens defense and gets exposed by fast teams where forwards easily speed by him.  

 

I had hoped that off season conditioning and work over the past two off seasons could help his speed, but alas, he's still the same paced skated as he has been.   The fact got me wondering, at 22 years old, are you locked in genetically at how fast you are able to skate and play the game.  Typically players are faster as they are young and need to build strength and bulk, especially as a defender, to take the daily riggers of the game. But how do you, or can you, work to make yourself a faster skater with the little time that you have in the off seasons.

 

Don't get me wrong, I think Olli still has upside, but I think he is going to have to round himself into a more physical defensemen that has to play a more positional game to compensate for his lack of skating speed. But he's not a physical player at the moment. 

 

So the big question, does that fit into the speed and puck moving game that the Pens rely on from their defense in the long term?  If not, what trade value is there in Olli Maatta.  I think that at this point he has some good value as he is only 22 and has 3 years experience in the NHL already at the blue line.    

 

 

 

Hes had a bad year so far.  A few flashes of his old self but I can't begin to count the number of mistakes he's made that have led to goals against.  It's frustrating because he had such a good rookie season. I wonder if something that happened health wise has had a long term effect on him.  He's shown flashes of his old self but few and far between. 

[mojo1917]

+1 for the terrific pun.

 

I have yet to watch the Pens, though I do wonder if his "NHL readiness" as a youngster came at a price of "upside"  perhaps he is/was a WUSIWUG player and not a guy that "projected" upwards.

 

 

[nossagog]

9 hours ago, mojo1917 said:

+1 for the terrific pun.

 

I have yet to watch the Pens, though I do wonder if his "NHL readiness" as a youngster came at a price of "upside"  perhaps he is/was a WUSIWUG player and not a guy that "projected" upwards.

 

 

Yeah, and the whole projected upwards thing is why they gave him the five year at $4M per contract.  If he doesn't actually achieve that upwards potential, that contract will hurt a bit.   It may also hurt his trade value as the current trend in the NHL is for fast puck moving defensemen.

[nossagog]

Had to bump this to the top of the heap.    Not blaming the game on Maatta, heck, you're not going to win many games with only one goal.   But this one play brought out the worst in Maatta, which is his skating speed, or lack there of.  Ryan simply blew right by him on the play like he was standing still.   Not sure at this age how much speed you can add in an off season.