Monday debate: deciding on the D

Sad to Say the Canes will be in a year of turnover. We extended Vets, mainly because we had no youth, and we are caught with an aging, oft injured team.
The balanced approach for D:
Gleason/Corvo
Pitaken/Seidenberg
Babchuk/Melichar

Some with a shot from On Top and A decent defender. Make the 7 guy competitive the whole year. Walling and Kaberle should compete for the same spot and If Malichar is Wallin like slipp a young guy into the 6th spot. My Vote for the 6h spot is Conboy. He gives a little of that Ward factor we let go in order to keep Kaberle and Wallin. A banger who will make oppenents pay. The downside with Conboy is we have to live through the mistakes. GO Canes - Prove me wrong!!!

Gleason-Pitkanen
Corvo-Seidenberg
Kaberle-Babchuk
Melichar

Wallin waived, we can no longer afford his atrocious play. He is the worst hockey player in the NHL.
Kaberle will rebound, the guy was great when healthy. He had 22 assists last year, while being injured and paired with Wallin most of the time.
Conboy will either be a fourth line checker or the first to be called up from albany. Rodney will be a good depth guy...but hopefully wont see the NHL...

Gleason/Pitkanen
Corvo/Kaberle
Seidenburg/Borer
Unfortunately, because Borer is the only guy with a 2-way, he gets stuck in Albany, and we get stuck with Babchuck/Melichar/Wallin.
Wallin is shot I think. Babs and Melichar may be serviceable in the 6 and 7 spots. I will say don't write of Kaberle yet. He was very good at the end of last season with Corvo. Both skate well and get the puck out quickly, so as long as they can avoid getting trapped in the zone, they are pretty effective.

My top six D men would have to be

1.Joe Corvo

2.Dennis Seidenberg

3.Joni Pitkanen

4.Niclas Wallin

5.Anton Babchuck

6.Casey borer

and if i could pick another one it would be Jospeph Melichar

Did I just read here that Niclas Wallin has a nice shot from the point? How would anyone know that? The puck rarely leaves the defensive zone when he's on the ice because he can't execute a routine breakout. Everybody knows to dump the puck in on Wallin's side of the ice because he'll lose that race 90% of the time. If by some miracle Wallin actually gets possession of the puck, he'll (A) rim it around the boards to the other team's defenseman (B) chip it out to center ice to the other team (C) turn the puck over behind the net.

Wallin-Corvo would be a brutal, brutal pairing. Wallin is not anywhere fast enough to cover up for Corvo's frequent defensive gaffes. Seidenberg is. Just because Wallin has the label "defensive defensemen" while Seidenberg is allegedly an "offensive defensemen" doesn't mean Wallin is better defensively. Seidenberg is the far better hockey player and that's all that counts.

From what I've seen & heard so far in camp, Seidenberg looks most ready for a chance in the top 4. Perhaps he can be paired w/ Corvo. Wallin & Kaberle have not impressed so far at all. Kaberle should be traded, but I think we are stuck w/ Wallin. I am hoping to see more of Babchuk & Melichar to see if they are ready to be 3rd pairing guys. Rodney will probably be sent to Albany in a few days, but I really love the toughness & energy Conboy brings to the team. Hopefully his injury won't keep him out too long, & he'll get a shot to start the year w/ us.

Here are my personal picks as of today (if everyone were healthy):

Pitkanen/Gleason

Corvo/Seidenberg

Melichar/Conboy

Babchuk/Wallin

Well, maybe I don't have the top six down pat, but the pairings are important. I'm going to go on the assumption that they're looking at Rodney a little more since all the other potential callups on defense were in last year's camp. I think Conboy will go to Albany as well once his injury has healed.
For first pairing, Pitkanen-Gleason is a now brainer. I think we will see Corvo-Wallin as #2, then likely Seidenberg-Melichar, and Babchuk-Kaberle. The biggest key to me is to not pair any of Corvo, Seidenberg, and Kaberle together, as they are all offensive minded and tend to think more about moving the puck forward than securing it. Last year the Seidenberg-Kaberle combination was brutal in front of Ward and directly led to some cheap goals for our opponents.

Niclas Wallin, Dennis Seidenberg, Tim Conboy! Wallin - Big hitter, nice shot from the point, keeps people out of the middle. Seidenberg - Big hitter, hard shot, plays with a lot of heart! this guy wants to WIN! Conboy - I was very impressed by him last year when he was called up. He plays hard, doesn't take anything from anybody, and can play up if needed. GO CANES!

Seidneberg has got to be the 4th man for sure, he's been playing great and the staff has showed confidence in him by giving him the "A" for those 2 games.

Let them fight it out, whoever plays best should be in the lineup. It's nice to have the depth, we'll probably be plagued with injuries all season.

Should include The Burg.  No question.  He has earned it.