Canes Country brought up a good point. Nevermind the blue line, the team is at 23 roster players without Gleason. Someone is going to have to go to Charlotte/elsewhere. Sutter/Westgarth seem the only options, but would they risk losing Sutter to waivers? Would they demote Westgarth or trade him?
My stab at the D pairs for Thursday night:
Sekera/Faulk
Gleason/Hainsey (interchangable as both are capable of playing either side)
Harrison/Murph
I do not want Jay Harrison in the lineup over Bellemore or Komi.
Do you guys think Gleason is worth the $4M salary? I sure don't. What if I floated you an option:
To EDM:
Tuomo Ruutu
Tim Gleason
To CAR:
Linus Omark
Denis Grebeshkov
Clears us some dead salary weight (Ruutu) as well as getting more skilled. Or too much skill not enough grit will be left on our team???
Not to mention, I doubt Edmonton does that deal.
Seriously though, Gleason might be overpaid but until he plays a game this season, we won't know.
And since it seems to be the trendy thing to do now, can we at least wait the traditional 9 games before declare Gleason "useless" or "terrible"? The guy's going to be coming back from a concussion, there's going to be a readjustment period...
Gleason/Faulk was a very effective top pairing last year. If not Gleason, who are you people planning on sending out night after night against top lines if Faulk or Sekera go down? I like Ron Hainsey, but he's not exactly dominating play against the 2nd lines.
And Ruutu has been a nice addition to the lineup already, despite coming off from 2 hip surgeries and the mystery preseason injury. He's drawn penalties, lives in front of the goalie, and has been a physical player along the boards. Dvorak is fine, but Ruutu ups the skill level significantly on that 3rd line, and gives us a solid 4th with Dvorak and Bowman.
Why would we give up two things that are important to the team for Linus Omark, who passed through waivers without anyone batting an eye, and a KHL guy.
Agree with those that say Gleason will help. The thing that throws a stick in the wheel with the D is that Komisarek has had 2 decent showings for a guy that didn't play much in the past year. Thought his last game on the Island was solid and he had a nice hit or two. He might not be too far off.
Wonder if Muller and Co. have thought about dressing 7 D?
My stab at the D pairs for Thursday night:
Sekera/Faulk
Gleason/Hainsey (interchangable as both are capable of playing either side)
Harrison/Murph