TheReelChuckFletcher
Former TheRillestPaulFenton; Harverd Alum
@TheRillestPaulFenton I understand the want to have the deepest team possible to still be good post expansion draft.
Unless Fleury becomes a top 3 defender next season or Bean blows the doors off, I can’t see justifying not protecting Skjei. Btw, I don’t know that Bean makes the squad.
With that being said, our non perfect FO needs to improve the team this offseason. Our needs are starting goalie, RH forward who can take draws, Top 6 forward, and RHD. We have a couple of guys who don’t fit into those roles / extremely redundant. If they can be moved to help fill the needs, it should be done.
I'm very much in the talent over handedness crowd. I'd only want a RH forward or a RHD if they're an upgrade from what we have right now. Someone like Trocheck absolutely was (vs. Haula and Wallmark), so IMO that was a no-brainer move. I don't see anybody on the RHD market RN whom represents an upgrade-per-price-point option relative to Gardiner/Fleury/Bean, especially since Gardiner's game has rebounded since January (and his possession stats were always there even at his worst) and we now know that Fleury and Skjei can both pretty capably play their off-side (Skjei certainly has the speed to pull it off). That may change if there are odd men out post-start of UFA, which there very well could be considering the deep RHD UFA class, but for now, I think status quo is best. Also, if there's a LH option that represents an upgrade over what we have, our FO should consider that, too. I'm a huge fan of Shayne Gostisbehere, for example, and Philly fans see him as an odd-man out because he had a down year, meaning that his asset price in a trade could be quite low relative to performance. The Canes, IMO, should do their due diligence if he's available for a low price.
Last edited: