Chris Kunitz

[Ugene Magic]

Kunitz-Crosby-Hornqvist is one of the worst line combinations I can think of. He doesn't do anything to help those two at all. I can maybe see an argument that Kunitz is okay as a third wheel on a line with Kessel and Sid/Geno, although I don't prefer it, especially with the new version of Kunitz.

The new version of Kunitz definitely is better suited for Geno and kessel since Kunitz has really relied on play-making more due to not being able to the grind as much anymore.

Getting Malkin and Kessel the puck should be seen as an easy role.

What I mean by that is, Kunitz parked at the left wing wall passing the puck up and out of their zone should do well for those two going with speed through the neutral zone.

It's making use of his deficiencies by way of positioning. They fly in the zone, and if need be, hit the late man Kunitz for a shot.

 

[Waffle Fries]

The new version of Kunitz definitely is better suited for Geno and kessel since Kunitz has really relied on play-making more due to not being able to the grind as much anymore.

Getting Malkin and Kessel the puck should be seen as an easy role.

What I mean by that is, Kunitz parked at the left wing wall passing the puck up and out of their zone should do well for those two going with speed through the neutral zone.

It's making use of his deficiencies by way of positioning. They fly in the zone, and if need be, hit the late man Kunitz for a shot.

Right, he's obviously better suited for Sid/Geno-Kessel than Sid/Geno-Hornqvist. But the fact that he doesn't grind anymore makes me weary about his ability to do the "easy role" of getting them the puck. Old Kunitz would have been the absolute perfect compliment, but he seems to think of himself as a sniper these days rather than someone willing to battle hard along the boards.

 

[Penguinator]

Well, Kunitz better be getting dirty 'cause no way he's a sniper on a Malkin-Kessel line!

 

[Speaking Moistly]

New version of Kunitz isn't well suited for either line and that's the problem. He can't float around and be the sniper opposite Kessel and he lacks the ability to create to be opposite Hornqvist. Maybe his defensive game works opposite Kessel best but that won't make up for Crosby or Malkin having to do the dirty work while the Ks wait.

 

[Ugene Magic]

Right, he's obviously better suited for Sid/Geno-Kessel than Sid/Geno-Hornqvist. But the fact that he doesn't grind anymore makes me weary about his ability to do the "easy role" of getting them the puck. Old Kunitz would have been the absolute perfect compliment, but he seems to think of himself as a sniper these days rather than someone willing to battle hard along the boards.

Kunitz was forced to be the sniper for lack of better options when Sid came back on line one. And how can he be the sole sniper when half of his goals the past 3 seasons came on the PP. Just a note: he'll still see #1 PP time just because the others probably will be creating some of those PP's.

I'm still a big believer in making two #1 PP units.

Well, Kunitz better be getting dirty 'cause no way he's a sniper on a Malkin-Kessel line!

Doesn't need to be.

Kunitz - Malkin 50/Neal 40<--> Kunitz - Malkin 40+?/Kessel 35+

I don't really see much of a difference. Healthy that is, for an entire season.

Kunitz doesn't even need to get 26 goals like he did with Malkin and Neal. 20 would be just fine with 35/40 assists.

 

[canadianguy77]

Can't wait to watch another season of Kunitz skating into his centerman on the rush. Fun times are ahead.

 

[TNT87]

If Kunitz can just get back to be at least serviceable I will be content and not being a detriment to the team he was like last season.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

Hopefully he doesn't pull a Bernie this season...

 

[Jacob]

The poll options got me to take a glance at the Flyers and holy **** do they have some terrible contracts. Lecavalier at 4.5 for another 3 years.. Matt Read at 3.6 for another 3 years.. Andrew MacDonald at $5 million for half a decade. They just signed a guy that was a healthy scratch for 1/8th of the season for almost 4 million. Brutal. Makes me feel a little better about Kunitz/Dupuis/Scuderi.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

I don't think Kunitz gets moved this year.

 

[mpp9]

The poll options got me to take a glance at the Flyers and holy **** do they have some terrible contracts. Lecavalier at 4.5 for another 3 years.. Matt Read at 3.6 for another 3 years.. Andrew MacDonald at $5 million for half a decade. They just signed a guy that was a healthy scratch for 1/8th of the season for almost 4 million. Brutal. Makes me feel a little better about Kunitz/Dupuis/Scuderi.

Yeah, over 1/3 of their cap is tied up in garbage. It's wonderful.

 

[billybudd]

The poll options got me to take a glance at the Flyers and holy **** do they have some terrible contracts. Lecavalier at 4.5 for another 3 years.. Matt Read at 3.6 for another 3 years.. Andrew MacDonald at $5 million for half a decade. They just signed a guy that was a healthy scratch for 1/8th of the season for almost 4 million. Brutal. Makes me feel a little better about Kunitz/Dupuis/Scuderi.

Don't forget that Umberger makes about $5 million next year, though that expires afterwards.

 

[Ogrezilla]

yet the Flyers are still damn near a lock to win all of their games at Consol

 

[Penguinator]

yet the Flyers are still damn near a lock to win all of their games at Consol

Meh, Leonsis is buying everything we let go while Clark seems obsessed with destroying us, even to his own demise.

 

[Riptide]

Now that Sid can have Hornqvist on the right side and be a #2 player on that line, I'm ok with Kunitz being a third wheel. He just can't be Sids scoring winger.

With Malkin and Kessel on the other scoring line, they can bring some attention away from Sid.

Kunitz as a 3rd wheel is fine (assuming he's back to at least roughly where he was 16 months ago). However he needs to be that 3rd wheel with a skilled player on the other wing. That means someone like Bennett, Kessel or Perron. Kunitz and Hornqvist will not be all that different then Kunitz and Dupuis was. Very effective in the regular season, but significantly less so in the post season when we need our wingers to be able to do something with the puck.

 

[Jacob]

Don't forget that Umberger makes about $5 million next year, though that expires afterwards.

nhlnumbers.com says he's signed for 2 more years at $4.5. Sooooo bad.

 

[Riptide]

I'm still a big believer in making two #1 PP units.

Same here. The only time I ever remember seeing that was against Philly in 2012(?). Loved it then - and that was without the talent we now have. Divide up the talent as evenly as possible, and give both lines a minute or 2 rushes or whatever. Something like: Crosby, Kunitz, Kessel, Maatta, Pouliot, and give Malkin Perron, Hornqvist, Letang, XXXX. Or whatever - lots of options with the talent we have. But stop this idea that we have to completely stack 1 PP.

But if we are going to do that... then give them a hell of a lot more time then 2 rushes (which seemed to be around 60/70 seconds). That setup also kind of needs guys that actually want to shoot the puck. I'd love to see someone who's a greedy ******* out there that will shoot the puck every chance he has. Not stupidly, but a lot more then what Crosby/Malkin seem to want to do.

 

[Riptide]

The poll options got me to take a glance at the Flyers and holy **** do they have some terrible contracts. Lecavalier at 4.5 for another 3 years.. Matt Read at 3.6 for another 3 years.. Andrew MacDonald at $5 million for half a decade. They just signed a guy that was a healthy scratch for 1/8th of the season for almost 4 million. Brutal. Makes me feel a little better about Kunitz/Dupuis/Scuderi.

I'd take Read at 3.6m for 3 years before Kunitz at 3.85m for 2 years. Read is at least a decent 3rd line forward.

 

[Jag68Sid87]

Come on. We just FINALLY got the Mario Lemieux replacement for our power play, so now let's take Evgeni Malkin off the first unit?

I'm not sure people even understand what it means to suggest going with two No. 1 PP units. It means Evgeni Malkin's ice time gets slashed, that's what it means. Sidney Crosby will always be on the first PP. SO you're taking our most dangerous PP point man off the first unit. Awesome sauce.


Crosby, Malkin and Kessel should be on every single first PP. You can use other players to fill those other two spots, but those three are automatics.

 

[Jacob]

Maybe. He's usually a 20 goal guy but had only 8 last year. Still, that's a lot of bad contracts for bad players and they just don't even have that many good players.

 

[Riptide]

Come on. We just FINALLY got the Mario Lemieux replacement for our power play, so now let's take Evgeni Malkin off the first unit?

I'm not sure people even understand what it means to suggest going with two No. 1 PP units. It means Evgeni Malkin's ice time gets slashed, that's what it means. Sidney Crosby will always be on the first PP. SO you're taking our most dangerous PP point man off the first unit. Awesome sauce.


Crosby, Malkin and Kessel should be on every single first PP. You can use other players to fill those other two spots, but those three are automatics.

This isn't anything against Malkin. Could that be the end result? Quite possibly. But it's not the intention. The intention is about having a PP that is more effective then what we had last season. Because once we got out of Nov, our PP was meh. Not bad, but far from great.

Why? If you're only going to give the #1PP 60/70 seconds (which is what MJ's 2 rush rule typically was), why should we stack it, then send out Sutter and whomever is left over? Sutter isn't an effective PP player. So giving him Perron, Kunitz, Maatta and Pouliot (or whomever) doesn't make a lot of sense.

And also most people who are in favor of this, are not simply saying, just take Malkin off that PP... they're saying disperse the talent as equally as possible. And whichever PP is going out would almost certainly have something to do with who's line is freshest.

Kessel, Hornqvist, Perron, Letang, Pouliot and some combination of Kunitz, Maatta, Cole, Bennett, Dupuis etc with Crosby and Malkin should easily be enough to have two effective PPs that can be threats for a solid 2 minutes, vs a loaded PP that doesn't see a ton of icetime and outside of Oct/Nov wasn't crazy effective.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

It seemed like he was just a step behind with everything, seemed like his injury bothered him more than it should have but given his style of play, not entirely surprising either.

He'll be better than next year. 1st half he was alright, the 2nd half...he just looked tired and sluggish. Not something Kunitz is known for.

 

[Jag68Sid87]

This isn't anything against Malkin. Could that be the end result? Quite possibly. But it's not the intention. The intention is about having a PP that is more effective then what we had last season. Because once we got out of Nov, our PP was meh. Not bad, but far from great.

Why? If you're only going to give the #1PP 60/70 seconds (which is what MJ's 2 rush rule typically was), why should we stack it, then send out Sutter and whomever is left over? Sutter isn't an effective PP player. So giving him Perron, Kunitz, Maatta and Pouliot (or whomever) doesn't make a lot of sense.

And also most people who are in favor of this, are not simply saying, just take Malkin off that PP... they're saying disperse the talent as equally as possible. And whichever PP is going out would almost certainly have something to do with who's line is freshest.

Kessel, Hornqvist, Perron, Letang, Pouliot and some combination of Kunitz, Maatta, Cole, Bennett, Dupuis etc with Crosby and Malkin should easily be enough to have two effective PPs that can be threats for a solid 2 minutes, vs a loaded PP that doesn't see a ton of icetime and outside of Oct/Nov wasn't crazy effective.

The solution isn't to stop loading up the first PP, the solution is to get rid of Brandon Sutter, Chris Kunitz and others who drag this team's offense down.

Rutherford wants four scoring lines. Well, if we had Sundqvist and someone else at center, we'd have enough to put out a decent second unit, at least.

We need to get the first unit going, not the second unit.

Kessel-Crosby-Hornqvist
Letang/Pouliot-Malkin

Bennett-new center-Sundqvist
Maatta-Pouliot/Letang

That's not terrible, and requires no crazy split of the top talent.

EDIT: I forgot David Perron! Mea culpa...replace Bennett or stick him on the other side of Bennett and move Sundqvist to the middle...or the new guy.

EDIT II: I forgot Plotnikov too! We have PLENTY of candidates to play on the second PP unit, we don't need Sutter.

 

[mpp9]

We're very close to giving Crosby and Malkin all the necessary elements for a PP. Elite RHS scorer. Elite net front presence. And a potentially elite PP QB.

Let's see how that works before having to deal with battling egos with Sid vs. Geno. This board would self-destruct anyway.