Second best forward in Iowa to Rossi. Looked good in his 9 games of NHL hockey. Right handed shot. Can play winger or center. Reminds me of a better version of Dewar/Shaw. Is he the next guy to find his role in the bottom 6 of the NHL squad?
83.5What is the cap next season? 82.5? We're at 74.5 right now so I don't think we have a choice. We have to add 4 forwards, 2 defensemen (one will be Faber) and a goalie (sign Gus) to the roster.
83.5
Right now we are at $76.2M with 17/23 roster, which includes both Rossi and Faber. Leaves just a hair under $7.3M to sign Gus, Duhaime, Addison, Shaw (LTIR likely), and Steel. It's actually more manageable than I thought. Especially because Addison/Steel will likely be traded and replaced with ELC type players.
That's with a full 23 man roster. I believe we rocked a 21-22 man roster for a large portion of this year to save cap space up for the deadline.If we're at 7M, Gus maybe gets 3.5, Steel and Addison are gone but they're not technically counting towards that 76M right now anyway. That's 3 forwards and 1 defenseman for the last 3.5-3.7 right? Technically possible with four 900k players but about as tight as you can get. We might even see Beckman, Milne, Petan, Fogarty, maybe Simon Johansson or Daemon Hunt/Ryan O'Rourke?
Or maybe we trade Foligno/Middleton/Zuccarello. I mean that's a tight squeeze.
I keep coming back to we can't run Hartman at 1C again and expect different results. They need to try Rossi there for at least 10-20 games. We also need to be prepared that Zucc will take another step back.Kap - Hart - Zucc
Boldy - JEE - MoJo
Foligno - Gaud - Walker
Duhaime - Dewar - Reaves/Heavy??
Rossi/Steel
That's with a full 23 man roster. I believe we rocked a 21-22 man roster for a large portion of this year to save cap space up for the deadline.
Milne really intrigues me. I thought he got better as the season went on. If Simon Johansson plays for the NHL team, he's either vastly improved or things have gone horribly wrong for the NHL squad. I don't see Petan or Fogarty as anything other than 13th forwards/callups.
Beckman should have a decent chance of making the squad. We could make an interesting forward group out of what we have:
Kap-Rossi-Zucc
Boldy-Ek Daddy-Johansson
Beckman-Hartman-Walker
Duhaime-Dewar-Gaudreau
Good point on the bolded.Walker has 2 seasons (51 games) of waivers exemption left. He'll be riding the injury callup bus for when winger gets hurt.
Barring any trades, UFA signings, and just re-signing the RFAs; this is the healthy FWD group:
Kap/Hartman/Zucc
MarJo/JEE/Boldy
Foligno/Freddy G/Duhaime
Shaw/Dewar
For that last spot I see it as a compete toss up between 4 prospects:
Top-9 center: Rossi (moves Hartman or Freddy G to wing), could also be tried as a winger.
Top-6 wing: Walker (he needs to add mass)
Bottom-6 wing: Beckman (energy and a bigger body that the rest)
4th line wing: Milne (long shot, but he's my pick to impress in camp similar to Shaw last year)
Trouble is, Rossi wasn't even close to being an effective top 6 C, or even a NHL C, in his brief times up here. Just handing him the #1C spot .... yikes. I think i'd rather JEE moves up, and Rossi plays with Boldy, a guy he's played with before, and MoJo, a guy who knows how to play and who's speed will open things up for the line.I keep coming back to we can't run Hartman at 1C again and expect different results. They need to try Rossi there for at least 10-20 games. We also need to be prepared that Zucc will take another step back.
I'd be fine with Ek Daddy on the top line and Rossi on the second line. Just something that's actually given a legit chance for more than 5-10 games.Trouble is, Rossi wasn't even close to being an effective top 6 C, or even a NHL C, in his brief times up here. Just handing him the #1C spot .... yikes. I think i'd rather JEE moves up, and Rossi plays with Boldy, a guy he's played with before, and MoJo, a guy who knows how to play and who's speed will open things up for the line.
Once that fails we can move him down to the 3rd line, then back to Iowa.
I'd be fine with Ek Daddy on the top line and Rossi on the second line. Just something that's actually given a legit chance for more than 5-10 games.
Johansson has been hovering around .3-.5ppg for years. If Rossi can’t get at least .3 next to Boldy full time, then he’s a bust.I don't like the idea of a MarJo/Rossi/Boldy line. Lines with MarJo have been junk if he's the 2nd best FWD on the line. It was like that when he was on a line with Fiala a couple years ago, and then again last year in the Playoffs (no JEE).
I'd like to see a Rossi/Freddy G/Walker line tried out in preseason. Not just because I don't see Rossi as a NHL center (too small and slow). It's a developmental thing I've said with most young centers so they have a chance to get acclimated to the NHL game without all the responsibility.
Johansson has been hovering around .3-.5ppg for years. If Rossi can’t get at least .3 next to Boldy full time, then he’s a bust.
Boldy had a rotating cast of players that weren’t NHL quality last, including Rossi. I’m sure the 16 points in the last 20 games has something to do with acquiring Johansson and bumping Eriksson Ek up to that line. The fact that those three worked so well together was my original reasoning to try Rossi on the 1st line. I hope that another year of training has helped Rossi fulfill more of his potential.Boldy only had 28p 5v5 last season (81 games); that is a .346 ppg rate. 16 of those points came in the last 20 games of the season. 12p in 61 games is bad. 16p in 20 games is really good, 1p in 6 Playoff games is bad.
I don't see Rossi getting 3v3 time, being on PP1 (the working PP unit). or being on the ice in EN situations to boost his stats next season; so I just used 5v5 stats.
Boldy had a rotating cast of players that weren’t NHL quality last, including Rossi. I’m sure the 16 points in the last 20 games has something to do with acquiring Johansson and bumping Eriksson Ek up to that line. The fact that those three worked so well together was my original reasoning to try Rossi on the 1st line. I hope that another year of training has helped Rossi fulfill more of his potential.