Sadia Doan may have been the best of the young wingers available, but the Suns’ depth at the position made it pretty clear it wasn’t going to happen.

With two of the young recruits already off contract, and the third who is in a similar situation to Doan and the latter two – it begs the question of what else the Suns could have done to bolster their young gun play.

You might be surprised, then, to know that one of the young core at the Suns is no stranger to defence, and that defensive coach Chris Leitch has been involved in a number of younger players improving their defensive capabilities this year.

“I don’t think it’s that a lot of their younger guys are getting off to bad starts on defence,” Leitch said last week, “I think a lot of the young guys coming in have played a lot of minutes last year – Chris [Edouard] is up with us. I think he’s been really good in that area, especially in the early part of the year.”

Perhaps the best example of this comes through Adam Saad.

Over the past few months – dating all the way back to January 14 – the new kid on the block has been a solid defender.

In fact, since the trade deadline, Saad has started 14 of the 18 games he’s participated in.

Against the Suns on December 29, he even started a key defensive zone contest, and came up big in a few other situations, too.

Sporting a pair of good defensive performances in one week, it could be argued that Saad has been impressive since the trade deadline.

In terms of raw numbers, he’s been decent, but he’s struggled to get on the scoresheet.

His two goals are a bit down on his season averages, but he’s also not a goalscorer; but he’s made the most of his opportunities.

His two point game against the Demons that night was one of three games he’s featured in this year. If his numbers can improve like they have in the games he’s missed, Saad would have made the most of his opportunities.

Last year, his overall numbers were just three goals and 16 points. This year, his goals and points per game have skyrocketed to a career low in both categories.

The fact he played 22 games, where he recorded 16 goals, two