#3 - Dylan Strome C

[Price is Wright]

Don't forget Dvorak either. I still think he's going to develop further offensively

Arizona has so many good young players it's easy to forget someone. I was going over the list and originally the guy I kept forgetting was Perlini, who I saw a bit on Niagara two years ago (was a big Ho-Sang fan and made sure to catch IceDogs for him)

I keep putting together lines in my head and forgetting someone. A lot of times Grabner because his time in New Jersey was awful but I don't know if that's Grabner or New Jersey. But I see Keller, Grabner, Panik, Hinostroza, Dvorak, Fischer, and Perlini? Did I forget someone? That's seven wingers capable of playing top nine minutes. There's an odd man out there. But that's good. Lots of choice. Lots of options.

Chemistry is tough to figure out in this league, and if Strome finds his game and Galchenyuk shows what I always knew he could show with a coach who would believe in him (everything he has said so far about Chuck is night and day to what Chuck was used to with Therrien and Julien), it will make things a heck of a lot easier to put together who they play with.

 

[Price is Wright]

I've read some people argue the future is top lines that can score, and really cheap extra lines who can shut things down.

I agree the best would be 12 forwards who can score. But you will never get that. The biggest stars will allways be overpaid, and the best lines will win their part of the game.

I actually think those who go with superstar-lines, and shut-down lines, have gotten this right.

So I beg to differ.

That's not really how it has been for years now with the Cup winners. The superstar lines *are* the shutdown lines. Crosby is the shutdown line on Pittsburgh. Ever since Bergeron in Boston, Toews in Chicago, and Kopitar in LA, there is an expectation that the line you play the most has to also be the line you play to stop the other teams best.

When I say four lines that can score, I don't mean your fourth line has a 20 goal scorer. I mean you don't play plugs that will never get the puck in the net on the fourth, but either young guns that haven't shown enough to break into the top line, or smart veterans whose best days are behind them but still know how to play. As the goons and grinder with no hockey skill disappear, they will be replaced by guys who have skill, just not the top end skill of the other guys. You need to have the skill to stack your lines and play a power play at even strength, but you need skill all throughout the lineup. That's why Eller, Connolly, and DSP were so important for Washington.

That's a big part of what excites me on this Arizona team. That looks to me what Chayka is doing. And when you look around the league, you see that more and more, teams are trying to build themselves deep. Go look at the Tampa Bay Lightning roster. That's a salary cap team with Kucherov, Stamkos, Miller, Johnson, Point, Gourde, Killorn, Namestnikov, and Palat in their top nine. Everyone I named scored at least 15 goals last season except Palat, who played only 59 games and put up 17 goals the year prior. It's a game of depth right now. How much skill can you pack with a salary cap?

 

[BUX7PHX]

That's not really how it has been for years now with the Cup winners. The superstar lines *are* the shutdown lines. Crosby is the shutdown line on Pittsburgh. Ever since Bergeron in Boston, Toews in Chicago, and Kopitar in LA, there is an expectation that the line you play the most has to also be the line you play to stop the other teams best.

When I say four lines that can score, I don't mean your fourth line has a 20 goal scorer. I mean you don't play plugs that will never get the puck in the net on the fourth, but either young guns that haven't shown enough to break into the top line, or smart veterans whose best days are behind them but still know how to play. As the goons and grinder with no hockey skill disappear, they will be replaced by guys who have skill, just not the top end skill of the other guys. You need to have the skill to stack your lines and play a power play at even strength, but you need skill all throughout the lineup. That's why Eller, Connolly, and DSP were so important for Washington.

That's a big part of what excites me on this Arizona team. That looks to me what Chayka is doing. And when you look around the league, you see that more and more, teams are trying to build themselves deep. Go look at the Tampa Bay Lightning roster. That's a salary cap team with Kucherov, Stamkos, Miller, Johnson, Point, Gourde, Killorn, Namestnikov, and Palat in their top nine. Everyone I named scored at least 15 goals last season except Palat, who played only 59 games and put up 17 goals the year prior. It's a game of depth right now. How much skill can you pack with a salary cap?

Another reason why Chayka has been high on using the draft to establish some better value, for multiple reasons.

Ideally, 1 out of every 2 1st round picks plays themselves into a big contract extension down the line (OEL, Keller on the way there, but we have had more misses in between that timeframe than hits). Keep getting 2-3 solid players each year out of the draft with some potential and use free agency to supplement the rest. Ideally, you have between 3-6 high dollar value players, most of whom you drafted or have 1-2 big free agency draws every so often, about 9-12 mid-tier players that came from a mix of draft, trades, and free agency; and then 1-3 new/young cost-controlled talent that we specifically drafted to also place in the lineup. As long as that sort of cycle continues, we are likely to keep reloading with players filling in internally when we do have departures.

For so long, we were in the position where we had no depth to work from in the minors either. It feels nice to know that our call-ups don't have to be the Nolan Yonkmans or Andrew Ebbetts of the world (nothing against those guys, but with so little depth to work off of, we got the most we could out of these players). If we lose a F to injury, we have a player like Crouse, Kempe, or Dauphin to stem that tide - I would trust any one of those players over Ebbett the same way that I would trust Oesterle or Lyubushkin over Yonkman, when comparing rosters.