GDT: Avalanche @ Rangers | December 3rd, 5MT | 80's Edition

[InjuredChoker]

Never say never about Duchene staying on the wing. Seguin and Benn have both made sacrifices for the Stars in terms of playing centre, I believe Seguin plays it now but there have been a lot of times when Benn plays centre and Seguin is on the wing. I can see Duchene and MacKinnon working in the same way.

benn hasn't played center since the seguin trade. he does take faceoffs,especially when seguin was bad at them. and he's better defensively, so he's fairly often helping the D down low defensively. but other than that, seguin has been the C on that line. or spezza and eakin when they had to spread it out as their wing depth was bad.

benn was playing wing last season when seguin was out with knee injury.

 

[Kschey]

Go look at the good teams, they all have a few 4th line guys that got more than a 1 year deal. St Louis has Ott and Reeves, Chicago has Garbutt and Desjardins, Dallas has Moen and Fiddler, NYR has Glass, Moore.

I could go on, but the point is if you have some decent role players you sign them for a couple of seasons, so you can't get some consistency. Then you don't have to worry about replacing them with guys that might not work out as well.

There is literally no downside to giving a player like Skille or Wagner a 2 year 900K-1.1M contract. I'd rather have players that I know what I've got than trying to play hardball with them and having to replace them with unknowns. Obviously I want to see how the rest of the year pans out for them, but if they keep their play up, I'd give each of them a 2 year deal.

I agree. Skille, especially, is a player you could also promote to the 3rd line when injuries strike for a game or two. He's got the skill to play with better linemates as well. He's a great 4th liner and I would give him two years right away.

Wagner on the other hand I'd like to see play some more games first although he's been great so far.

 

[Iceberg]

Yes, let's sign Skille to a four year deal, now!

And then when he struggles or starts spending more time on IR we can moan about it for the next few years.

I mean, it's like they say... you can never have enough 4th liners.

 

[InjuredChoker]

also holy crap have girardi (and staal) fallen off. girardi must have one of the worst contracts in hockey. only clarkson has worse.

 

[henchman21]

As long as the deal is around a million or less, I don't mind giving Skille a 2 year deal. Worst case the contract gets buried.

Wagner is under team control as a RFA, so I don't think there is any pressure to sign him until after the season.

 

[CobraAcesS]

As long as the deal is around a million or less, I don't mind giving Skille a 2 year deal. Worst case the contract gets buried.

Wagner is under team control as a RFA, so I don't think there is any pressure to sign him until after the season.

I guess I will say this...

We all used to complain the team was not retaining the 4th line guys we loved. That went all the way from Laperrière, to Hendricks, to not being able to hold onto Jay McClement.

So I guess I should be rooting for a 2 year deal for Skille with that in mind lol.

 

[The Kingslayer]

Didnt get a chance to see the game. Happy for the win. Happy Varly waiver bound had a strong game now perhaps he will be picked up for sure, Happy matty got yet another one. 14 goals already before the end of the calendar year. Has Matt ever scored 14 before Christmas? happy that Anaheim mismanaged Wagner who now has 3 goals in 9 games. How long did it take Senor Cliche to get his 3rd goal in an Avs uni? 180 games? Give me a win against Minny next please.

 

[tigervixxxen]

As long as the deal is around a million or less, I don't mind giving Skille a 2 year deal. Worst case the contract gets buried.

Wagner is under team control as a RFA, so I don't think there is any pressure to sign him until after the season.

I think they have to play Wagner nearly every game to keep him from falling into group 6. They probably will but if they stay healthy a while Roy is going to have to sit someone to give Martinsen some time.

 

[InjuredChoker]

Didnt get a chance to see the game. Happy for the win. Happy Varly waiver bound had a strong game now perhaps he will be picked up for sure, Happy matty got yet another one. 14 goals already before the end of the calendar year. Has Matt ever scored 14 before Christmas? happy that Anaheim mismanaged Wagner who now has 3 goals in 9 games. How long did it take Senor Cliche to get his 3rd goal in an Avs uni? 180 games? Give me a win against Minny next please.

13-14. 16 goals before xmas.

 

[henchman21]

I think they have to play Wagner nearly every game to keep him from falling into group 6. They probably will but if they stay healthy a while Roy is going to have to sit someone to give Martinsen some time.

I think he needs 51 more games, so that is pretty much every game this season. Unless he gets injured, I don't see him sitting out any games.

While I think Roy is happy with Martinsen... I don't think he will keep him up the entire season and more injuries are bound to happen.

 

[ArWKo]

Pretty great game all around for the Avs last night. Some really solid defensive play, especially from the forwards. 5v5 possession stats got pretty negatively skewed for the Rangers in no small part thanks to the 3 minutes of empty net time that were played almost entirely in the Avs zone.

Wagner looking to be a really solid waiver pick up and I'm a huge fan of the 4th line as it stands with McCleod-Wagner-Skille. A great mix of skill and grit that can play tough minutes with great energy and also contribute on the score sheet. I hope that line is about as permanent as it can be.

I was also really impressed with Grigorenko's defensive play. He seems so sneaky out there, he comes up on guys quick and they have no idea he's there until he's made a steal of poked the puck away. Also really great and spotting the puck in traffic and protecting well with his body to give himself enough time to make the pass.

Great to see the Duchene-train keepin' on chugging. MacK was getting pretty frustrated especially when he couldn't get good wood on the awesome move he made that would've been a goal 9 times out of 10, but he's still been playing great and the offense will come - just ask Dutchy.

 

[SB]

EJ's tweets deserve their own thread, but here's this one:


Erik Johnson ‏@6ErikJohnson 23m23 minutes ago
Always love coming to New York City!

 

[The Kingslayer]

EJ's tweets deserve their own thread, but here's this one:


Erik Johnson ‏@6ErikJohnson 23m23 minutes ago
Always love coming to New York City!

omg thats scary

 

[InjuredChoker]

Hockey's Cap ‏@HockeysCap 30m30 minutes ago View translation
CPP Rank Pt/82 games
1.A.Panarin CHI $10k/p
2.L.Draisaitl EDM $10k/p
3.C.McDavid EDM $12k/p
4.N.MacKinnon COL $12k/p
https://hockeyscap.com/cost_per_point/2016/season/all/all/all/costperpoints/asc/normalized …

 

[Pokecheque]

also holy crap have girardi (and staal) fallen off. girardi must have one of the worst contracts in hockey. only clarkson has worse.

Well, I'd argue Luca Sbisa is up there as well, but your point is valid. At one point Girardi was actually underrated, but now I agree, he's got a big contract and his play has dipped considerably. Someone once described him as "Josh Gorges with a shot." Perhaps that's now more true than ever.

 

[dahrougem2]

Well, I'd argue Luca Sbisa is up there as well, but your point is valid. At one point Girardi was actually underrated, but now I agree, he's got a big contract and his play has dipped considerably. Someone once described him as "Josh Gorges with a shot." Perhaps that's now more true than ever.

I even honestly feel like Josh Gorges is a better skater than Dan Girardi and Gorges is slowwwwww.

Marc Staal is also joining Girardi territory. Slowly but surely he'll get there and the Rangers will have two crippling anchors on their back-end. Now they're likely going to have to lose Yandle as a UFA because of it. Though Yandle is no saviour, he's' better than Girardi and Staal

 

[InjuredChoker]

I even honestly feel like Josh Gorges is a better skater than Dan Girardi and Gorges is slowwwwww.

Marc Staal is also joining Girardi territory. Slowly but surely he'll get there and the Rangers will have two crippling anchors on their back-end. Now they're likely going to have to lose Yandle as a UFA because of it. Though Yandle is no saviour, he's' better than Girardi and Staal

i'd argue yandle is a savior on a team that lacks mobility and puck moving ability so much.

 

[Avs_19]

I love having Skille on the team and hope he gets re-signed. I don't want it to be a multi-year deal though. I know we haven't had a good 4th liner like him in a bit but those players are around every year. IMO, there's no need to hand out 2+ year extensions for depth players like him.

 

[CobraAcesS]

I love having Skille on the team and hope he gets re-signed. I don't want it to be a multi-year deal though. I know we haven't had a good 4th liner like him in a bit but those players are around every year. IMO, there's no need to hand out 2+ year extensions for depth players like him.

I don't actually fall into that line of thinking, or why the hell did we deal with Cliche for so long...

Skille and Wagner are also fairly young, a lot of 4th liners are older and slower. These type of 4th line guys are actually more rare IMO, and the types of guys that better teams like Chicago have rather than us.

I guess I'd be ok with a 2 year deal, but not beyond that.

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

I don't actually fall into that line of thinking, or why the hell did we deal with Cliche for so long...

Skille and Wagner are also fairly young, a lot of 4th liners are older and slower. These type of 4th line guys are actually more rare IMO, and the types of guys that better teams like Chicago have rather than us.

I guess I'd be ok with a 2 year deal, but not beyond that.

Skille will be 29 starting next season. He's not exactly young.

Sorry, there's just no reason to commit long term to a 4th line guy unless they bring something exceptional. If Skille wants to come back for another year, fine by me, but I don't see any reason to commit longer than that. It's just unnecessary.

 

[CobraAcesS]

Skille will be 29 starting next season. He's not exactly young.

Sorry, there's just no reason to commit long term to a 4th line guy unless they bring something exceptional. If Skille wants to come back for another year, fine by me, but I don't see any reason to commit longer than that. It's just unnecessary.

Anything with a two in front of it is still young IMO lol.

A lot of these guys are punchers in their thirties like McLeod.

 

[ArWKo]

13-14. 16 goals before xmas.

That's slightly depressing since it means he only scored 7 goals the entire rest of that season

Duchene currently on a 1.7 goals/60 scoring rate. His career high was 1.1 goals/60 in 10-11 when he scored a career high 27 goals.

Currently on pace to smash that and I very much hope he doesn't slow down.

 

[InjuredChoker]

yes, he had that stretch where he had 1 goal in 22 games ( but got 17 points). 1 goal in his last 8 and the missed the last 11 with knee injury.

i think it's highly likely that he won't maintain this pace. he's shooting at almost 20%. even peak stamkos managed to be that high just once over full season.

 

[Stories]

yes, he had that stretch where he had 1 goal in 22 games ( but got 17 points). 1 goal in his last 8 and the missed the last 11 with knee injury.

i think it's highly likely that he won't maintain this pace. he's shooting at almost 20%. even peak stamkos managed to be that high just once over full season.

Puts into perspective how streaky he really is.

 

[Freudian]

Two years is fine for Skill is he maintains this level of performance. I wouldn't give more term to a fourth line forward though.