kimzey59
Registered User
- Aug 16, 2003
- 5,700
- 1,978
It remains to be seen whether or not his hockey sense and skills will translate to the NHL level. Sure you may have a few more players that are borderline NHLers playing in the AHL, but you are talking about a guy that needs to be in your top six in order to play his offensive game and produce. He must be better than the top 6 that we currently have on the Blues roster, and he is not.
Nonsense.
The Blues roll 3 scoring lines. Schwartz could stick on any of those lines and put up decent numbers.
The only thing Schwartz has to do is beat out the worst player in our top 9(most likely D'Agostini).
He has the 2nd worst +/- on his team next to Taylor Chorney. Hopefully, stats lie and he has learned how to cover his man in the defensive zone. I would venture to say that he probably needs to stay where he is at and get powerplay and top 6 forward minutes and round out the rest of his defensive game.
How many times have people said that "we can afford a defensive liability here and there given how strong our overall team defense is" (mostly in regards toputting Cole next to Pietrangelo).
The spot we're likely talking about in regards to Schwartz is the LW next to Backes and Oshie. Those are our 2 strongest defensive players, and I might even include Pietrangelo when making that statement. If we could afford a defensively weak player anyplace in the lineup; that is the spot. AS I said before; all Schwartz has to do is out produce D'Agostini in that spot and he can make the squad, and that isn't as hard as you want to think it is.
It will be a short season where every win and point will be more crucial.
Exactly, every point will be crucial.
How do you even begin to justify leaving Schwartz at home if he proves to be more productive in camp than one of our current top 9? D'Agostini didn't exactly tear up Germany.
Give him time to gel and dominate at the AHL level. Let his hockey sense and skills surpass the AHL level. We have enough depth right now to let him develop.
We might have the depth, but do we have the top-end skill?
The Blues aren't exactly loaded with top-end scoring ability.
Again, if Schwartz proves to be more productive he should get the spot. We can't afford to leave a superior offensive player in the AHL.
I'm not saying that Schwartz will not get there, but he definitely has a ways to go on both sides of the blue line. Hitchcock is a defense first guy. You all know that.
I do know that.
I also know that Hitch has been incredibly open about how he's going to hand out his roster spots. It's going to be based on performance, and nothing else. A lot of our top 9 didn't play during the lockout and some of the ones that did play weren't all that good. Our lineup is a lot more open than you think it is and Schwartz has as good a chance to stick as anybody.