KIRK
Registered User
- Aug 2, 2005
- 109,700
- 51,216
Nice post here, I agree with many of your points.
On point #2, I think the game has changed over the last few years to where a guy like Malone '07-'08 isn't quite as effective. Malone '07-'08 was a very good player at that time, but I don't know how good he'd be now. The game moved slower then. Kunitz '11-'12...really Kunitz up until '14-'15 would be a great piece for either Sid or Geno today.
Point #3, I get it. But I'm not talking about 24 year old Malkin or 27 year old Malkin or even last year's 31 year old Malkin. I'm talking about Malkin heading into his graceful decline (now that I've seen his last 5 games, I'm off the ledge that it won't be graceful) at age 33+. So it changes my calculation on his position.
But frankly, we know there will be an incredible amount of line-juggling so nothing would be permanent, either way.
I think the trick here is that the Pens don't have the type of winger he needs (they had Hagelin; they have Rust, but he's not available). It's hard to gauge fairly when Malkin doesn't have a winger to complement him where it matters (I've always said Kunitz was the need and Neal was the luxury, because the need is someone to support him properly in the 200 foot game), and it certainly has been exacerbated by until 2 games ago Malkin having 75% of his shifts with one or more of Johnson, Maatta, or Oleksiak killing things behind him (compared for example to Sid who with Schultz out still had Letang behind him for 60% of his shifts).
I do think Malkin could be okay/productive on the wing, but I think it makes a lot more sense for a GM to make a point of surrounding him with the right help than it does to short change him and then wonder why no 'fixes' work any better than rearranging deck chairs on Titanic.
BTW, I think right now ZAR, for as little as I think of him, is the default LW option, although I have my doubts if it works as well against a top team as it did against a crap team like the Isles. I also think we got a good reminder today of why Geno's is this team's X factor . . . for as much as Sid is the team's best player, Geno is its nexus . . . as he goes (in play and in question of health), the team goes, especially when the games matter most. It's why Dzingel or Ferland should be on JR's radar, just in case Plan ZAR, as I call it, doesn't work out.