Waived: Hurricanes waive Marcus Kruger and Josh Jooris (cleared & assigned to AHL)

[Unsustainable]

Isn't he out indefinitely?

Hmm, didn’t realize that

 

[Pinkfloyd]

How about Paul Martin for Markus Kruger straight up? Some veteran experience on the blue line even if it's just as an extra d-man may help?

 

[thesaadfather]

He's not when compared to other centers on Carolina. It's just that the Canes take more offensive zone faceoffs as a whole.

He's taking more O-zone starts than he has since 2012-13. Kruger's value to a team is his ability to take heavy D-zone starts and flip the ice. This year, he's taking the lowest percentage of D-zone starts of his career. It just confuses me why he would be acquired and not be played in the role that he's had consistent success in.

 

[DaveG]

Is Kruger still Kruger? Or has he declined a bit, Canes fans?

He's a black hole on the ice, a place where all offense comes to die. Which is fine if the Canes could score enough on their other 3 lines, but they can't. Thankfully the Canes have a guy that's solid defensively in the minors that's just flat exponentially better offensively in Foegele, and Wallmark is pretty good defensively in his own right while also being vastly superior offensively.

 

[Lempo]

i love it when mods change their moods about players 6 posts after they say something bad about that player

Technically by definition 'moderator' is someone who takes something excessive and then literally makes it more moderate.

And obviously they have to see that you stay on your toes, to keep the fear alive.

We have to live with this daily at the F=26.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

He's taking more O-zone starts than he has since 2012-13. Kruger's value to a team is his ability to take heavy D-zone starts and flip the ice. This year, he's taking the lowest percentage of D-zone starts of his career. It just confuses me why he would be acquired and not be played in the role that he's had consistent success in.

You're missing the point. Look at the graph vs. just focusing on the numbers vs. previous years. The Canes don't take many D zone starts overall because they are a strong possession team, so they can't just magically give Kruger more, because they don't exist. The main centers are Ryan, Rask (~65% Ozone starts), Staal (46%) and Kruger (47%). Staal is the best center and far superior to Kruger and will take the toughest assignments.

The Canes ARE playing him in the role he was acquired, he's just not being very good at doing that role.

 

[Kupo]

I think it just means Jooris and Kruger and Smith aren't any good.

I don’t disagree.

I just find it interesting that these moves were announced not just on the same day... But 3 minutes apart from each other.

 

[Wolfpuck]

Technically by definition 'moderator' is someone who takes something excessive and then literally makes it more moderate.

And obviously they have to see that you stay on your toes, to keep the fear alive.

We have to live with this daily at the F=26.

We live in constant terror.

 

[Big Daddy Cane]

How about Paul Martin for Markus Kruger straight up? Some veteran experience on the blue line even if it's just as an extra d-man may help?

I think the desire would be to cut down the salary obligation as much as possible, if the acquisition doesn't fill a need. There's nowhere for Martin to play atm.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I don’t disagree.

I just find it interesting that these moves were announced not just on the same day... But 3 minutes apart from each other.

Waiver announcements are almost always within minutes of each other, because teams have to submit them by noon so we usually catch wind of them between Noon and 12:05-12:10.

 

[Pinkfloyd]

I think the desire would be to cut down the salary obligation as much as possible, if the acquisition doesn't fill a need. There's nowhere for Martin to play atm.

I figured that could be the case. If the desire is to shed salary, I'm pretty sure the Sharks would be interested if salary is retained. I don't think the Canes will be able to move him without retention or a contract similar being returned. If the Canes retained 500k-50%, I'd probably move a draft pick like a 5th for him. Not sure what one may expect here though.

 

[Kupo]

Waiver announcements are almost always within minutes of each other, because teams have to submit them by noon so we usually catch wind of them between Noon and 12:05-12:10.

Well **** me then.....

Guess I’ll take off the tin hat in that case.

 

[gifted88]

But 3 minutes apart from each other.

Aren't these things processed by the league office? So the players were likely not waived 3 minutes apart, but the league processed them 3 minutes apart.

 

[Kupo]

Aren't these things processed by the league office? So the players were likely not waived 3 minutes apart, but the league processed them 3 minutes apart.

I’ve put the hat away already.

 

[Big Daddy Cane]

I figured that could be the case. If the desire is to shed salary, I'm pretty sure the Sharks would be interested if salary is retained. I don't think the Canes will be able to move him without retention or a contract similar being returned. If the Canes retained 500k-50%, I'd probably move a draft pick like a 5th for him. Not sure what one may expect here though.

I'd be content with Kruger 50% retained for a conditional 7th. That would be cheaper overall than a buyout.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I’ve put the hat away already.

But it's more fun with tin hats.

 

[Kupo]

But it's more fun with tin hats.

I saw a UFO one evening in the summer of 2013 in cape cod celebrating my honeymoon with my x-wife.

True story.

And no, she didn’t believe me.

 

[voxel]

Kruger reminds me another Swede... Anton Lander. All around average at everything. In the right situation (i.e Lander with Todd Nelson) they might find success.

 

[thesaadfather]

You're missing the point. Look at the graph vs. just focusing on the numbers vs. previous years. The Canes don't take many D zone starts overall because they are a strong possession team, so they can't just magically give Kruger more, because they don't exist. The main centers are Ryan, Rask (~65% Ozone starts), Staal (46%) and Kruger (47%). Staal is the best center and far superior to Kruger and will take the toughest assignments.

The Canes ARE playing him in the role he was acquired, he's just not being very good at doing that role.

Kruger never took the toughest assignments in Chicago, Toews did. Toews matched up with the top competition, but he always had 55% or higher O-zone starts. Chicago was most successful when Kruger was the only center under 50% O-zone starts. The idea is that he allows guys like Staal to play against top guys the majority of the time, but mostly in the O-zone. Carolina is giving Kruger D-zone starts, but only against low quality of competition. If you're looking for him to be more effective, he should be playing against some tougher competition.

Despite all this, I don't see what the issue with Kruger is outside of his contract. He has good possession numbers despite taking mostly D-zone starts, and the only numbers that look bad are his GF numbers, but he also has a PDO of 96%.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Isn't he out indefinitely?

Sounds like our kind of trade

 

[Lempo]

I saw a UFO one evening in the summer of 2013 in cape cod celebrating my honeymoon with my x-wife.

True story.

And no, she didn’t believe me.

She's bad x-wife if she don't want to believe.

 

[GoldiFox]

If you're looking for him to be more effective, he should be playing against some tougher competition.

Despite all this, I don't see what the issue with Kruger is outside of his contract. He has good possession numbers despite taking mostly D-zone starts, and the only numbers that look bad are his GF numbers, but he also has a PDO of 96%.

The problem with playing him against tougher competition is that every time the Canes moved him off the 4th line, his line would be hemmed in and scored on. He took a decent number of penalties because he couldn't keep up. Just a really "meh" player with zero offensive upside.

Jay McClement played his same role last year and he honestly did it much better. At 33 years old. A guy that didn't even get a contract.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Kruger never took the toughest assignments in Chicago, Toews did. Toews matched up with the top competition, but he always had 55% or higher O-zone starts. Chicago was most successful when Kruger was the only center under 50% O-zone starts. The idea is that he allows guys like Staal to play against top guys the majority of the time, but mostly in the O-zone. Carolina is giving Kruger D-zone starts, but only against low quality of competition. If you're looking for him to be more effective, he should be playing against some tougher competition..

When he played against tougher competition, he didn't do as advertised. He didn't "tilt the ice the other way", he just got hemmed in. The idea, when the Canes acquired him WAS that he'd free Staal up some, but his play didn't allow that. Don't think the Canes didn't want to use him more against better competition, but it hasn't worked out. They couldn't keep trying something that wasn't working.

Maybe he'll work out better with a better team around him somewhere else, but it certainly wasn't working out well here so far.

 

[thesaadfather]

When he played against tougher competition, he didn't do as advertised. He didn't "tilt the ice the other way", he just got hemmed in. The idea, when the Canes acquired him WAS that he'd free Staal up some, but his play didn't allow that. Don't think the Canes didn't want to use him more against better competition, but it hasn't worked out. They couldn't keep trying something that wasn't working.

Maybe he'll work out better with a better team around him somewhere else, but it certainly wasn't working out well here so far.

Who is he playing with there? The whole situation seems strange to me. He never had a problem playing against 2nd lines before. Hell, the turning point in the 2015 Anaheim series was when his line started matching up with Kesler and Silfverberg. It just seems unrealistic that he fell off in one year.

 

[sheriff bart]

I saw a UFO one evening in the summer of 2013 in cape cod celebrating my honeymoon with my x-wife.

True story.

And no, she didn’t believe me.

Did you or the ex get probed?