Am I missing something on Nordy? He's about at the top of the expendable pile to me, he's just such a nothing player. He doesn't have great speed, no shot or hands to speak of, gets pushed off the puck easily, hits once a month, doesn't really bring anything other than existing. I would have much rather have kept Stahlberg last season, at least his speed would create some havoc, especially on the PK. I'm hoping McLovin can be like that next year
was going to say the same thing re: nordstrom. would actually put stempniak a little higher on the list. it feels like he might have another year as a solid top 9 before it's time to hang it up, but it feels like this might be his last season considering the injuries and recovery time. he's made good money. he wouldn't have to play for what we would offer him.
nordstrom is about the very definition of replacement level. he reminds me of patty dwyer. great on the kill and not a liability at even strength, but not a player that takes a regular shift on a team with aspirations of really going somewhere... unless they're cap strapped and trying to squeeze the orange of their ahl team for a little extra juice.
plus, the risk/reward makes sense here. if we can get someone in that can replicate his role like foegele, we've just cut salary and not missed a beat. those are the type of moves that you have to start making when the upper end of your roster starts to get heavier as far as salary. if we find out that foegele can't handle it, then we're able to outsource and bring in a guy like stalberg that another team is trying to dump.
brock mcginn is a real wildcard for me. he's been getting better every season and has shown that his shot is a real threat. what does he have, 10 posts and crossbars on the season? he should easily be good for 15 goals. the idea of moving a player that has been improving as much as brock has *down* in the lineup would mean that we really really got better. he's shown enough this year to suspect that you could plug him into your top 9 for next year. for a player that turns 24 in a few days, he's established as a regular now. plus, with the skill level he has you could easily pair him with a player like necas on your 3rd line next season and not expect a total disaster offensively. he can keep up. plus, he brings a dimension we sorely lack in terms of playing with some sandpaper. that hit on karlsson last game after phaneuf took a run at him was fantastic. you'll notice it didn't happen again. we need more of that, not less.
the biggest problem with the current roster is that we have an abundance of second/third line hybrids and none of them are really grabbing the ring. lindholm would be perfect with just one more leap in development to the 55-60 point level where you expect a lot of your strong 2nd line centers to reside. hanging out in the 40-45 range with rask (normally) and ryan... we just need a little more. ideally we'd get a first line guy that could supplant jordan and allow him to fit that role and push lindholm to the 3rd line where he seems to profile better, but we simply don't have the right structure down the middle if that makes sense. ideal 2nd line center forced to take first line assignments. ideal 3rd line centers being shoehorned into the 2nd line. a player like ryan who would be a good 3rd liner and pp specialist being asked to carry an unreasonable offensive role. it's just not a super well-made group. wildly inconsistent and no forwards (save the tsa line) that you can count on every night. the right move will have a domino effect that can put everyone in a place their game is suited for... but what is that move? what will it cost? that's the question.
