2015 Season in Review: Eric Brewer

Eric Brewer was the source of some consternation around these parts this season. He was meant to be a veteran acquisition when Francois Beauchemin and Clayton Stoner become unavailable to the Ducks due to injury. Brewer is a former first round pick and had scattered 15 seasons of NHL experience around 4 different teams. The Lightning had been looking to unload Brewer for a while because his 3.875 million cap hit had become a burden. It was too much for a bottom pairing guy who was being pushed out by younger defensemen who needed the NHL experience. That's probably good advice.

So, what did Brewer do in his 9 games in an Anaheim sweater? The easy answer is 1+1=2. Points aside, he logged 15 minutes a game as a bottom pairing guy and had a miserable 42.3 shot attempts percentage. While here, it seemed we only ever complained about how old and slow Brewer was. War on Ice reports he put up a 6.15 GA/60 in his 9 games. That's a lot. For a quick comparison, Clark gave up 1.51 GA/60 in 7 games and Fistric gave up 3.84, and neither of them cost 3.875 a year.

Ultimately, Brewer became trade bait for...nothing really amazing. We gave up a third to get him, then packaged him with a 5th to get Korbinian Holzer. Holzer is arguably Toronto's version of Mat Clark: He's a defenseman who is approaching his mid 20s and it's unknown if he'll become a regular NHL defenseman. His 34 games this season was more than all previous NHL seasons combined. He made his debut in the 2010-11 season. Holzer had an equally unimpressive 43.8 SAT%, but a much more respectable 2.40 GA/60.

Brewer cost us a third round pick and we had to toss in a fifth to get a 7th defenseman that we arguably already had in Mark Fistric. It's safe to say that Brewer's time here was relatively insignificant. [EE- At least there was the one gloriously hilarious game where he was paired with Stoner, AKA- the DUI pairing: Defending Under the Influence]