Yeah... I think the skating is plenty fine to play center and he’s shown the defensive ability at lower levels (he’s actually played games at the junior level on defense and done quite well... I’ve seen one we’re he double shifted between forward and defense). But the puck on the stick part is where I really stick to it. He needs to be the guy with the puck on his line. In NA that is mostly the center and limiting that would be bad for his style of play. Even Rants isn’t the guy on his line and never will be... Shvy should be developed at center first and foremost.
Oh, I like his defensive game, kid's smart & his nasty hands work on both ends of the ice; I just would rather let him focus on what he can do with the puck than burden him with excess responsibility against it. We have enough other players that are good against the puck but can't do what he can with it, ya know?
I agree he needs to be the guy on his line who dominates the puck, but I guess I just don't understand the nuances of hockey tactics enough to see why Shvyryov couldn't do that while having the lighter defensive responsibilities of a wing...a la Duchene when he played with ROR, or MacKinnon a good chunk of the time this year. Now I realize both of those avs that filled the kind of role I'm describing where centers, either completely or nominally, but they're recent avs examples of players having that split between winger-duties defensively & center-duties offensively; around the league we've got similar dynamics at play with guys officially labelled wingers with the likes of Hall, Gaudreau, Kucherov out there weaving magic for their linemates.
As for Mikko, he dominated the puck for his line in NA with the Rampage & had the puck on his stick a lot as a rookie...things changed after MacK went super-saiyan, but before that we were all excited for having Mikko pulling the strings for his line the way Voracek does when not playing with Giroux.
I guess I'm not really opposed to letting Shvyry stay at center in the AHL, especially if it helps ease the transition for him; but I still think that he's a safer bet to become a difference maker in the NHL as a puck-dominant winger than a true center
Mironov isn't really a bust, he just didn't want to spend the time to adjust to the NA style of game.
I dunno man, I had hoped that maybe there was something in his skating that could be tweaked to make him more fluid, but he just looked stiffer than any av I've seen in years. Unless that was why he was so worried by our Masseur situation, I just don't think that even getting a better sense for timing & angles on the smaller ice would've made him a success.
