Speculation: Roster Building Thread Part VIII: Dilly Dilly - Lets Tank!

[haohmaru]

They should've acquired at least one RD.
Instead he's been loading up on an insane amount of LD and have not addressed any of the major needs needs of this team.

It's completely dyslexic much like Irishguy42..

They're a rebuilding team that's drafted 8 defenseman and 5 centers in the last two years and they aren't "addressing their major needs"? Come on.

 

[haohmaru]

Ugh..I'm so gonna hate this season

Approach it from the excitement of watching young players develop and, hopefully, succeed instead of watching the latest UFA signings fail to live up to expectations and you'll enjoy it more.

 

[NYR]

 

[NYR]

They're a rebuilding team that's drafted 8 defenseman and 5 centers in the last two years and they aren't "addressing their major needs"? Come on.

I get that part of it but at least pick up a few players that can keep things going.
I'm just not a fan of the way this org is going about this so called plan.
I'll be happy when JG is shown the door.

 

[Machinehead]

The fact that JG hasn't done a single thing to address the RD while expecting rookies to just claim shots is a joke yet he still gets no heat for this.

Here's what's going on in JG's little pea brain right now.

Skjei - Shattenkirk
Smith - Shattenkirk
Staal- Shattenkirk

A drunken monkey could've come up with a better plan than this.
Smh

We have more RHD right now than spots.

What roster are you people looking at?

 

[NYR]

We have more RHD right now than spots.

What roster are you people looking at?

I'm not sold on any of the RD that are currently "ready" to play this season.

Looking at the obvious.

 

[Machinehead]

I'm not sold on any of the RD that are currently "ready" to play this season.

Looking at the obvious.

And what LD are you sold on besides Skjei?

You not liking the RD is very different from the team not having any.

 

[NYR]

And what LD are you sold on besides Skjei?

You not liking the RD is very different from the team not having any.

Skjei

Edit: I wouldn't have minded Shattenkirk so much if he paired with a player in the Ian Cole mold.

He's gonna get torched in the worst way this year..

 

[Webster]

Kevin Hayes didn't go, a trade is imminent.

You'd find him in a horizontal position on his couch eating chips and watching Game of Thrones, his favorite Sunday activity.

 

[Mac n Gs]

Skjei

Edit: I wouldn't have minded Shattenkirk so much if he paired with a player in the Ian Cole mold.

He's gonna get torched in the worst way this year..

Then why not just play him with Staal? They were good together last season, and it gives you a veteran pairing that has the good balance of a puck mover and a stay-at-home defender.

Putting ADA with Skjei prevents Skjei from being a rover, where we've seen him struggle. They too had really good numbers together in a limited sample size. That leaves Pionk with one of the remaining LD, whether it be Smith, Hajek, or Claesson.

I don't disagree about our overstock of LD. Hartford is currently slated to roll 6 LD, which is nonsensical if you ask me. I like Bigras and Crawley, but I still wouldn't be surprised if we see a trade soon.

 

[NYR]

Then why not just play him with Staal? They were good together last season, and it gives you a veteran pairing that has the good balance of a puck mover and a stay-at-home defender.

Putting ADA with Skjei prevents Skjei from being a rover, where we've seen him struggle. They too had really good numbers together in a limited sample size. That leaves Pionk with one of the remaining LD, whether it be Smith, Hajek, or Claesson.

I don't disagree about our overstock of LD. Hartford is currently slated to roll 6 LD, which is nonsensical if you ask me. I like Bigras and Crawley, but I still wouldn't be surprised if we see a trade soon.

Despite what the haters say, Staal wasn't all that bad last season so I think you HAVE to play Shattenkirk with Staal but ideally on the 2nd pair.
You just know that he's going to start out on the top pair anyway, then 20 games in Quinn will make adjustments blah blah.

I couldn't possibly see any situation where ADA would warrant top pairing minutes next to Skjei what so ever.

Skjei: He's actually proven that he can be quite effective on the offensive side of things but if you look at who his partner was (Smith), I can't really blame Skjei for being ineffective.

At the end of the day..
It's nearly impossible to look at this defense as a whole and make any sense out of it.
If you look at the pieces, none of them match, not one single player compliments a specific partner.
It's all just a big giant cluster f***..

I feel bad for Quinn! Lol

 

[broadwayblue]

The D will look quite a bit different a season from now. This is very much a transition year in many ways.

 

[Avery16]

I’m really looking forward to watching this team, even if there are no significant additions between now and TDL (and I think there will be).

 

[Ola]

So McD and Miller had less value than MaxPac? Patience is a virtue!

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

So McD and Miller had less value than MaxPac? Patience is a virtue!

Pacioretty is better than Miller.

 

[Blue Blooded]

Despite what the haters say, Staal wasn't all that bad last season so I think you HAVE to play Shattenkirk with Staal but ideally on the 2nd pair.
You just know that he's going to start out on the top pair anyway, then 20 games in Quinn will make adjustments blah blah.

I couldn't possibly see any situation where ADA would warrant top pairing minutes next to Skjei what so ever.

Skjei: He's actually proven that he can be quite effective on the offensive side of things but if you look at who his partner was (Smith), I can't really blame Skjei for being ineffective.

At the end of the day..
It's nearly impossible to look at this defense as a whole and make any sense out of it.
If you look at the pieces, none of them match, not one single player compliments a specific partner.
It's all just a big giant cluster ****..

I feel bad for Quinn! Lol

Staal-Shattenkirk would be the "top pairing" in that scenario, taking the bulk of the defensive assignments whereas Skjei-DeAngelo get primarily offensive deployment.

Staal-Shattenkirk were actually very good together last year and Shattenkirk played some of his best 5v5 hockey in STL next to Barrett Jackman, suggesting their games may complement each other well.

 

[Mac n Gs]

The Pacioretty and Skinner trades are good for us because it makes Zucc one of the better, if not best, rental winger available. I'd say it's an ok deal overall, and I'll laugh if Tatar ends up putting up enough offense to mitigate losing Pacioretty. Suzuki was one of the other plays we were targeting at the 7th overall spot in 2017.

 

[pld459666]

Last season he struggled on RD even more than he did on LD.

Honestly, you could have stopped after struggle

Didn't really matter what side he played on

 

[Ola]

Pacioretty is better than Miller.

One year left on his deal. MaxPac haven't been good the last years. I was joking a bit, but I think the return for MaxPac was quite high in relation to other trades made lately.

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

One year left on his deal. MaxPac haven't been good the last years. I was joking a bit, but I think the return for MaxPac was quite high in relation to other trades made lately.

Miller was pending RFA with just 1 RFA-eligible year left.

 

[Mac n Gs]

Despite what the haters say, Staal wasn't all that bad last season so I think you HAVE to play Shattenkirk with Staal but ideally on the 2nd pair.
You just know that he's going to start out on the top pair anyway, then 20 games in Quinn will make adjustments blah blah.

I couldn't possibly see any situation where ADA would warrant top pairing minutes next to Skjei what so ever.

Skjei: He's actually proven that he can be quite effective on the offensive side of things but if you look at who his partner was (Smith), I can't really blame Skjei for being ineffective.

At the end of the day..
It's nearly impossible to look at this defense as a whole and make any sense out of it.
If you look at the pieces, none of them match, not one single player compliments a specific partner.
It's all just a big giant cluster ****..

I feel bad for Quinn! Lol

There’s no true ideal way to manage this defense right now. I think the biggest goal this year is to get this team back to playing a cohesive defensive game while analyzing how the younger guys perform under Quinn and Brown. They’re going to have to roll their pairings pretty evenly until some players step up, and we’re just going to have to deal with it for now. The pairings I posted at least give each of the younger guys a stable NHL partner to play with and have some precedent of prior success.

It’s going to be bad to start. Mixing a raw, young defensive corps with a new coaching scheme and system has the makings to be ugly for 20 games or so. That’s why I’m expecting us to be be pretty terrible through Christmas before finally hitting our stride in the New Year. The good thing is that there are already some very good NHL pieces in place to help guide this ship along, and Gorton has added some really, really good prospects and young players to the system.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

I’m really looking forward to watching this team, even if there are no significant additions between now and TDL (and I think there will be).

You mean subtractions right?

 

[RangerBoy]

The Pacioretty and Skinner trades are good for us because it makes Zucc one of the better, if not best, rental winger available. I'd say it's an ok deal overall, and I'll laugh if Tatar ends up putting up enough offense to mitigate losing Pacioretty. Suzuki was one of the other plays we were targeting at the 7th overall spot in 2017.

Pacioretty and Vegas look like they will get a new contract done.



Skinner hasn’t signed a contract extension. Buffalo could decide to flip him at the deadline if they have not gotten a new contract extension done by February. You would think that Buffalo wants to sign Skinner long term and they have the space to pay him. It’s close to Toronto for him. They have a good young team with with most of the boxes checked off. #1 center. #1 D.