Plz contine here
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Old link
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=1807927
Those are the last comments of the previous page
I was thinking the same thing. I would first like to see if that line develops the type of chemistry that it had with Stastny centering it. If it does, lock ROR up and focus on the D.
Seeing Mac on a few more breakaways would be fun too.
MacK has obviously looked better as a winger for his first season and a bit of hockey, but make no mistake about it he's going to be a centre on this team. Being in the middle will allow him to use the open ice a lot more. Why he didn't take advantage of it earlier in the year, I don't know, but it's growing pains, just like Tyler Seguin went through in Boston as they simply refused to play him as a centre. Now he flourishes in Dallas as a centre, it just took him some time.
MacK just needs to play with the same drive and determination that he did today. Drouin clearly brought the best out of him that we've seen in a long, long time. If he can keep this play up, he'll dominate this league.
So it would seem.
I'm also in the camp of MacKinnon at wing. It's probably too early to really tell if he can be a legit center, but he certainly looks better on the wing now. And O'R is a fine #2 center, when he's playing right. It would sure help the Avs if MacKinnon does play center though.
The Avs haven't been able to draft and develop a quality Top 4 defensive-playing defenseman in 20 years. They still can't figure it out.
Before I go down this path, I want to be open about the fact that I've only seen Morgan Reilly play two or three times, so I have no real expertise on him as a player. I though he was OK, but that team is lousy, so it's hard for me to tell with that plus such a small sample set. But I have seen a number of posters in here state that they believe he's a real 1st pairing prospect. With that…..
Like many of us, I've seen an awful lot of trade proposals concerning O'Reilly and Toronto in the trade forum (I think we should give Avs44 the HFboards-Avsgroup version of the CMH, given the tireless battling that guy does in there ). So putting aside the moronic ones concerning Kessel, Duchene, MacKinnon, etc. and focusing on the ones that return a defenseman, I've noticed that they all seem to get stuck on Gardiner vs. Reilly coming back. Avs fans want no part of Gardiner, Toronto fans want no part of giving up Reilly.
Would the members of this group be interested in the following?:
O'Reilly + Bigras for Reilly + 2nd or 3rd round pick.
(The 2nd/3rd round pick is just something to balance it, bring back a bit. That could equally be a mid-level forward prospect.) Is that interesting? Is Reilly that much of a better prospect than Bigras?
Would welcome discussion on this.
while he's a better prospect than Bigras I wouldn't think the difference between them is O'Reilly. I think Bigras is fairly likely to become a top four d. And Rielly Will be somewhere between a #4-2.
We need as many good LD prospects as possible and can't afford to trade them away. Unless we're trading for Oel...
I would not do that trade!!! Why? Reilly has a lot of talent but he still has a lot to proof in this league. (Bigras also by the way).
Bigras has all the tool to become a very good top 4 and Ror is Ror.
So for me, the gamble is not worth it
You all have it wrong. Roy realizes the difference between last year and this year is Benoit.
Buffalo makes sense in the fact they have the assets to package up, and after this season, they don't want to tank anymore. Seems like an offseason sort of deal though.
You just made me a cry a little.
What do you really think we could do in the off-season? I know I'm in the VAST majority here but I will say a couple of things...
1. I like for my two top centers to provide different looks.
2. I believe MacKinnon and Duchene aren't all that different. They both like to use speed...mostly to the outside and look to pass first.
3. ROR is a defensive beast who puts up similar numbers when given quality wingers...reminds me of Stastny but better defensively.
4. We don't have enough wingers capable of playing with two pass-first centers for 20+ minutes.
5. One of Duchene or MacKinnon would return a bigger defense man than ROR.
6. I believe MacKinnon will ultimately become a better center than Duchene...this leads me to believe
7. Duchene should be the odd man out...
8. Or...the Avs should quit thinking of ROR as a winger once and for all and quit thinking of MacKinnon as a center and wait (suck) until defense men develop.
I know there is a huge uncertainty in ROR and his price...but at this point, I'm really thinking the AVs need to get it done and sign him long term. Keep MacKinnon as the highest priced player but as a winger. Get some shooters...they need some Svatos type players.
You don't just sign O'Reilly or get rid of one of the other two, it's not trading cards. If what you say is a big enough issue then MacKinnon becomes a winger is the simplest solution.
And that is my honest hope. I really think MacKinnon could become one of the best wingers in the game of hockey. I really haven't seen much that shows me he could become one of the best centers though....
My hope is all three can be kept but that their roles be defined enough so that folks will quit ******** on ROR. That being said...it wouldn't fix the team.
The defense would still suck....while the AVs still have a bounty of quality centers/forwards.
1. FA sucks for d-men...always has and always will...Very seldom does a top-quality FA dman go to UFA...if he does, he will probably go "home" like Suter.
2. McGinn is injured....he might have been the one player we had who could get a quality young D prospect.
3. Our need for D is so apparent, we'll never get a fair trade. No GM is going to bend over backwards to help us.
4. All we do by waiting for our D prospects to grow and see what we got is burn years and add dollars to our forwards next contracts.
The AVs might very well have created a situation where a they need to reset the rebuild because they concentrated solely on forwards and were so terrible at developing dmen.
I was thinking the same thing. I would first like to see if that line develops the type of chemistry that it had with Stastny centering it. If it does, lock ROR up and focus on the D.
Seeing Mac on a few more breakaways would be fun too.
I absolutely agree with you Ex Tex. I was throwing this same sentiment around this summer. I don't mention it much, but it makes more sense to me. (although it looks like the Avs brass is going down a different path)
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