Tales From The Clipped: The 2023-2024 Lian Bichsel story
A season in review for the Swiss defender.
Lian Bichsel is, for my money, Dallas' top prospect.
I’m not calling Bichsel a top pairing NHL defender and this isn’t me making a garish prediction about an unknown future, or trying to make Stars fans feel better about their prospect pool. You know the score. This is just my personal philosophy about position value: a good, minute-munching top four defender is a lot harder to replace, and thus, more essential to a team’s success.
Consider how important Chris Tanev was. If you had to lose Joe Pavelski and Matt Duchene to keep Tanev, would you do it? Me too! (no judgment, non-agreers). I suspect it was more than just a scary term that allowed Dallas to part with Tanev, but knowing that they might have a replacement. That’s not to say Bichsel will ever be as good, or even particularly close; only that his profile is traced along a very similar archetype. Jonas Seigenthaler was and will never be as good as Tanev, but the young, New Jersey Swiss defender has carved out a solid career for himself int he Devil’s top four.
In that way, I consider Bichsel one of Dallas’ most important prospects to come around in years. It’s one of the reasons I had him so high on our list of ‘The Untouchables’ despite not profiling like an impact player in the classic sense.
The Untouchables: Ranking each Dallas player's tradeability
Just to be up front, I don’t believe in the concept of “untouchables” and what constitutes a player that can’t or shouldn’t be traded. Unless a player is literally the best at their position, then why the hell wouldn’t you entertain the possibility of an upgrade? Strip away your familiarity bias, and you’ll have a hard time justifying the case for your favorite player as being ‘untouchable.’
Compounding Bichsel’s potential value is the fact that Dallas might very well lose Esa Lindell after this year. Despite having strong opinions about the Finnish defender over the course of his career, there’s no denying his consistency, and thus, the potential hole that’ll be left when he’s gone.
Behind the paywall, I’ve broken down Bichsel’s play into three components with a broad highlight reel (with some minor clips sprinkled in) encapsulating each element.
Defensive Movement: Bichsel’s defensive actions and reactions in all three zones.
Offensive Movement: Bichsel’s offensive actions and reactions in all three zones.
Play Processing: Bichsel’s anticipation and reads.
(And yes, a little of the ole’ ultraviolence.)
I’m grouping each highlight this way because I found separating these by “offense” and “defense” utterly useless. It’s also just dumb. In the modern game, players leverage elements of both in each zone. Think about the importance of a good outlet pass in the defensive zone, or an exit kill in the offensive zone; offense from defense, defense from offense. (Think too, about the “separation” between striking and grappling in MMA and how level changes wove both together overnight.) It’s not just the best players that defy classic convention, but most modern players in general. It’s one of the things I forgot to mention in yesterday’s chat with Gavin Spittle and why Dallas shouldn’t have been interested in Patrik Laine: Dallas has built a roster with toolsy players instead of specialists. Similar to the last two Cup winners, there seems to be little room for single-layer players.
Bichsel is anything but that.