He’s a big part of why the season went down the tubes so quickly imo. Him and Skinner are some of the weakest top 6 LW in the league
Him and Skinner were out top 6 LW from day one, no? Has nothing to do with injuries imo.
Skinner is one example, and yes Skinner-Tage-Tuch is the first line.
But the entire middle 6, defense, and the goalie are all slotted above their heads.
The kid line (Peterka-Cozens-Quinn/Benson) would ideally be a 3rd line getting easy minutes a la the max/Roy/Vanek line back in the day. Instead they're a top 6 line from the start of the season and were slotted as our top line yesterday. I pointed this out because Peterka is now being exploited instead of being sheltered.
After the first line, Greenway, Robinson, Okposo, Girgs, and Olofsson were next in line for minutes. Of that group only Greenway should be getting middle 6 minutes, but certainly not as a center. Maybe you can make a case for Girgs as well, but Robinson is a 4th liner and VO isn't an NHL player, at least not an roster with our type of construction.
On defense Jokiharju should be a 3rd pairing guy, Bryson should be an extra, and if we're being honest, Power should not be getting the minutes he's getting either, particularly on the PK. Although yesterday's game wasn't as bad as recent games because Byram, a guy coming off the flu and no practice with the team, got most of heavy usage with Dahlin down the stretch.
UPL has been great, but what kind of development plan has a young goalie that's never had a heavy work load just play every single game for 2 months straight?