I'm interested in hearing more about this. Did we have something lined up to get him pre-Rutherford? Or was this more recently and it got scuppered because Karmanos hates JR?
I also found it surprising that Skinner was 26 right now. That means 27 on July 1st. If he were 28 or 29 I'd be much more hesitant, but at 27 suddenly a massive 7 year deal doesnt seem like as much of a franchise killer.
And looking at the crop out there (once you take Stone and Panarin away), he just might be the best fit here by far.
If that is ZAR's low ebb this season, so be it. I never expected him to never regress from his play a few weeks ago, but if he can maintain and not look completely lost when his line is not clicking, I will take that.
Its still shocking to me that Zach Aston-Reese has all of 56 NHL reg season games under his belt. It just feels like he's been around longer. But based on how he's adapted this season and just knew his job really well on L2, I'm confident he's gonna stick here.
The org is determined to make him a top six winger because of his grit, so he’s gotten tons of leeway and mostly unearned promotions into the top six.
Like I said back in Sept, I was warned this was coming, but it was still frustrating as hell because he looked like ass, and his board play was so atrocious.
Now that he looks competent on the boards, I figure whatever, let’s see what happens. I don’t think he’s a top six guy (or McCann for that matter), but there is no one really else to put in those spots with Rust out.
I guess you could put Simon in one of those spots, but then the third line would have zero creativity if it was comprised of wingers like ZAR, Hornqvist and McCann.
That’s why it blows Rust went down. He was really turning into a legit top six winger with his extremely improved vision.