Well we don't know that Vaakanainen is sitting just yet, though I suspect it'll be him or Clifton. Clifton (and then Reilly) was the guy who lost his spot when Zboril started to emerge. If they do pull Clifton out, that means Vaakanainen would have to go to the right side which may not be ideal, but he has played it.
I think the jury's out on Vaak. I'd like to see him play more minutes with a middle of the road player. Either on the right side of Forbort or the left side of Clifton (this would be my preference). His most common linemates this season have been Charlie McAvoy (30 minutes) and John Moore (17 minutes). He hasn't played more than 10 minutes with any other defenseman. Predictibly, his results are awesome when he's been paired with McAvoy (77% xGF) and been beyond awful when paired with Moore (17% xGF). It's hard to find his true level of play with that kind of discrepancy. It's hard to look at the raw data and discern how much of the results are due to the partner. A few games with Forbort or Clifton should give us a better idea of where Vaakanainen is. I guess they could probably put Vaak with Carlo too and bump Reilly down but Reilly's been going good lately so I wouldn't mess with that pairing.
