I never said he wasn’t good, or that what he brings is easily replaceable
But this is what Kreider is. A hot and cold guy. People act like he’s playing any different than he has the last 5 years
Had you said same exact thing early to mid November, you'd be spot on. However at this point in time gotta disagree with you my friend here on this.
For the past 2 1/2 months, there has been no "cold" Kreider as this has been by far THE best stretch of his entire career.
I said this on the game thread. I've never seen him so engaged, physical, passionate and productive as he's been since mid November when Kreider obviously read our forum and heard all of us bitching and moaning about how terrible he was playing and how it looked like he was tanking as he knew he was gone.
Well since than, he's been other than Panarin, our best player and it's really not even close. It's a very tough call as to what to do with him seeing he's so unique in his style of play as there are very few players in the league who can combine the kind of speed and physicality as Kreider can.
Personally, I want to keep him seeing I have no concerns that in the later parts of what likely would be a 6-7 year term, he'd be out of shape or not engaged. And he gives the kids of ours a veteran to watch and learn from.
We'll see how it shakes out but no way it can be said that Kreider hasn't played as good as he's ever played for us in the past few months...he's been phenomenal.