White Shadow
Registered User
- Jan 7, 2016
- 2,477
- 598
Sure,I agree the notion of top six bottom six is outdated (especially under Babcocks systems), but with that said even under that context it's not unreasonable to want to find a replacement for Hyman on that top line who can provide more offense as well as also be defensively responsible, especially if the team is looking to move towards being a contender.
I really feel this is the crux of the whole Hyman debate. It is because Babs has moved past the antiquated top 6/bottom 6 and has us playing with 3 scoring lines. This doesn't mean we have 9 scoring forwards though, we still pretty much have 6 offensively minded forwards and 6 forwards with other roles to play.
So those 3 forwards who would otherwise have made up the 3rd line get sprinkled throughout the 3 scoring lines to create depth and more balanced scoring.
This is why we have Leo, Brown and Hyman playing within those 3 forward lines. 2 of those 3 actually see PP time, but that is because we use 8 forwards for our 2 PP units and not 6.
Those same 3 + the 4th line RW are also the main PKers.
It won't always be these 3 forwards Babs uses to fill these spots, but you can see skill sets required to fill these 3 roles.