he needs another season at the weights for sure. He is a lot better staying on his feet but can take some more improvement
i disagree with the thinking he is odd man out cause only guy up next that would make him that imho is point who needs awhile yet
and yes i think he can take filppulas role 100%
i think people forget the entire picture? kucherov and him lit up ahl like no ones business before kucherov broke out lol before kucherov dominated the nhl he was benched in playoffs that year yep happened
but bigger than that connolly is in all world funk who comes to rescue? yep that was namestnikov
same thing for panik major funk before worlds who dug him out of that yep was vladdy
give him richards over paquette with brown and you would get some solid third line points imho
i dont want to get too down on pac man love the kid and the heart just think hes hit the wall as his ceiling not like vladdy and others
also i like boyle with blunden moving forward myself like the bigger line as our fourth line
so maybe those guys boyle callahan blunden are our third line and we make brown richard vladdy the fourth use less with leads etc..
is a way to make this work
also think callahan might make way up to top six even though seems unlikely right now which would allow pac man on bottom also
filppula is becoming the odd man out to me