Beaulieu at 25 minutes a game this year gets 10 ponts and is a -20.
He is not ready yet. Oh, he may be ready for the NHL. He's not ready to play 25 minutes on a top pairing every night. He's not going to step in and be an all-star olympic-caliber athlete who wow's people on every shift. Because Markov is all of those things. Beaulieu can't fill Markov's skates, not yet. Markov is an elite, premium #1 defenseman. There's only a half dozen guys like Dougty, Subban, or Keith in the league. Markov's not on their level...he's on the level immediately below it. He's as good or better than any other team's #2 defenseman in the entire league right now. You can't replace that with Beaulieu, who may not ever crak the top 4 on an NHL squad. He's an unknown. I have higher hopes for Tinordi than Beaulieu. Tinordi will crack the top 4 somewhere, someday. Beaulieu might. Beaulieu may have more potential upside, but he's not as blue-chip stable. Getting to play alongside a guy like Markov certainly increases Beaulieu's chances of getting there.