Player Discussion Phillip Danault

[angusyoung]

KK needs more time, especially on the PP, we all agree on that. The thing is, Julien is adamant on rolling 4 lines (and overabusig Danault). Sure he's good, but I agree to an extent with @Mrb1p that gally drives the line defensively : I'd try Domi with Gally and Tatar. Domi is an intelligent enough player to learn on the fly about the defensive side of being a center. Playing with Gally does that too IMO. That could give us a really solid offensive line. Danault with Lehk and Armia, elite defensively and can chip in offensively. Drouin KK Suzuki, could turn out to be a really good line offensively, KK and Suz can do the job defensively, but I wonder about their consistency. Anyway, I think we can all agree CJ is misusing his assets right now, although it's not terrible (it could be worse).

Don't think this is the place where WE all agree will ever happen.

Habs role 4 lines now because they can. Keeps the other 3 lines fresher,longer in the long run. It's a different story if already at bottom.

 

[Mrb1p]

So Julien is sheltering Danault's defensive side with Gallagher? Do you think Gallagher can shelter Kotkaniemi or Domi and get the same 5/5 results? Danault is a perfect middle 2C IMO and he does a lot out there. I'm open to shuffling up the lines but not desperate for it to happen until Kotkaniemi can be a more effective top 2C. We have to remain patient unfortunately while both Kotkaniemi and Domi mature as centers. When Poehling is ready, Domi is moved to his wing IMO. When Kotkaniemi is ready, Danault moves to 3C. I'm ok with this

We have to remember management's goal is to make the playoffs. They don't see it like how some fans do where we want to let the kids have important roles while they make mistakes on the job. Considering the circumstance of what management wants, it makes sense on what they are trying at the moment. We are not a 100% rebuilding team.

And theyre wrong and we can point out they are wrong over and over. They were wrong to not sign Radulov and Markov and we pointed it out, its the same thing. Just because management wants something that they cannot have doesn't mean we need to support it as fans.

 

[Habs Halifax]

And theyre wrong and we can point out they are wrong over and over. They were wrong to not sign Radulov and Markov and we pointed it out, its the same thing. Just because management wants something that they cannot have doesn't mean we need to support it as fans.

I think they are making a mistake as well cause we have the opportunity to double down on the youth movement where we help reinforce our probably of hitting with more prospects if we were to sell a few vets. I do have my concerns our current plan affects our future and we have a prolonged middle of the pack team. What does this youth of players need? I superstar not in net! I don't believe we have it yet. Lots of great grade A prospects trending well but who is the potential superstar? Maybe Kotkaniemi has an outside shot at it. If he ends up a good top 6 forward, what is the plan to get the superstar? Through trades and UFA? Been there, tried that.. it won't work. We need another lottery pick shot

However, we can blame management for the direction but we can't blame them for the moves they make within the direction of keeping the Danault line together cause that makes sense in terms of what they are trying to do this year.

 

[Mrb1p]

I think they are making a mistake as well cause we have the opportunity to double down on the youth movement where we help reinforce our probably of hitting with more prospects if we were to sell a few vets. I do have my concerns our current plan affects our future and we have a prolonged middle of the pack team. What does this youth of players need? I superstar not in net! I don't believe we have it yet. Lots of great grade A prospects trending well but who is the potential superstar? Maybe Kotkaniemi has an outside shot at it. If he ends up a good top 6 forward, what is the plan to get the superstar? Through trades and UFA? Been there, tried that.. it won't work. We need another lottery pick shot

However, we can blame management for the direction but we can't blame them for the moves they make within the direction of keeping the Danault line together cause that makes sense in terms of what they are trying to do this year.

But what they are trying to do does not make sense, so no, it doesn't make sense.

If I try to build a staircase to space it would make sense to start with a really wide, solid base ... But the project doesn't actually make sense, so no, the really wide, solid base does not make sense.

 

[Habs Halifax]

But what they are trying to do does not make sense, so no, it doesn't make sense.

If I try to build a staircase to space it would make sense to start with a really wide, solid base ... But the project doesn't actually make sense, so no, the really wide, solid base does not make sense.

This is their plan to try to win a cup... It took too much energy to get where we are so why go back down and build a stronger foundation to climb up and stay? lol

 

[26Mats]

Sorry I might have misunderstood.

Anyhow, yeah, thats a no from me man.

Drai-McDavid-a bag of pucks
Marchand-Bergeron-Pasta
Stamkos-Point-Kucherov
Guentzel-Crosby-A bag of cinnamon bun
Pacioretty-Statsny-Stone
Laine-Scheifele-Wheeler
Ovi-Backstrom-Oshie
Gaudreau-Monahan-Lindholm
Nino-Aho-Teravainen
Huberdeau-Barkov-Dadonov

Heres ten lines, ty come again.



I don't get it

He's a 30g-55 pts guys right now because he plays with Danault and if he played with a better player he'd have better production, its exactly my point. No matter what you think Gallagher is, him putting up more goals and more assists gives him more value on the ice.

Nino and Terravainen where available to be traded for...

 

[MasterD]

Danault is the new Patrice Bergeron.

 

[Mrb1p]

Nino and Terravainen where available to be traded for...

And for scraps too.

 

[Mrb1p]

I like your idea of challenging the statement like you did. Now, could you tell us who else was on each of those lines last year, so we can look at the 5-on-5 results and rank them?

Thats a heck of a demande, Baseballcoach. Good thing I have homework to do, or I wouldn't be doing this.


The Marchand-Bergeron-Pasta
The Keller-Stepan-Kessel line
The Olofsson-Eichel-Reinhart line
The Gaudreau-Monahan-Lindholm line
The Nino-Aho-Teravainen line
The Landeskog-Mackinnon-Rantanen line
The Bertuzzi-Larkin-Mantha line
The Draisaitl-McDavid-Kassian/Chiasson line
The Huberdeau-Barkov-Dadonov line
The Forsberg-RyJo-Arvidsson line
The Giroux-Couturier-Voracek/Konecny line
The Guentzel-Crosby-Simon/Hornqvist line
The Sharks top two line (Different combination of Couture, Hertl, Kane, Meier, Labanc (This one changes a lot, with Hertl or Couture centering their lines depending on injuries to wings, or the game theyre playing or whatever, one things for sure, theyre always dominating, especially the line Meier is on.)
The Pacioretty-Statsny-Stone line
The Marchesseault-Karlsson-Rielly line
The Schwartz-Schenn-Tarasenko line
The Blais-ROR-Perron line (these two have changed a lot too.)
The Stamkos-Point-Kucherov line (Sometimes Stamkos is subbed for Gourde, Johnson, Palat, Kucherov and Point are glued together, mostly.)
The Kapanen-Tavares-Marner line (LW changes from Hyman, Kapanen, Moore but RW/C stays)
The Milelr-Pettersson-Boeser line (Before Miller came along it was Goldobin or Baerstchi)
The Ovi-Backstrom-Oshie line (Sometimes Ovi plays with Kuz or (And) Wilson too.
The Laine-Scheifele-Wheeler line (Laine subs for Ehlers and Connor last year.)
The Panarin-Dubois-Atkinson line (Atkinson is glued to Dubois, now it's Texier that gets this spot, sometimes it Nyquist or Bjorkstrand.)

Heck, is that line actually better than
The Laine/Connor-Little-Ehlers line ? (Laine last year, this year its the other two on each wing.)
The Jonnson-Matthews-Nylander/Marleau/Kapanen line ?
The Lee-Barzal-Eberle/Bailey line ? (The three wingers swapped a lot last year, Lee was there when they needed a goal.)
The Benn-Seguin-Radulov line ?
The Vrana-Kuznetslov-Wilson/Connoly line ?
The Palat-Johnson-Gourde line ? (Moves around on whos C, and whos wing, sometimes Stamkos is on that line.)
The Toews line ? (So many wingers... Debrincat, Shaw, Kane, Caggiula, Kahun (2018), Saad...
The Strome line ? Same thing... Kane, Debrincat, Kahun, Shaw, Saad...
The Silfverberg-Rakell-Henrique line ?


Notice how almost every line in the league isn't a fixed line, teams are never content with what they have, injuries happen,etc. It's really hard to actually say there's X and Y line but what you can see is that most top centers are actually with one of the top players and they have another player rotate.

 

[26Mats]

And for scraps too.

With all that cap space for all those years, we could have used it to our advantage.

Terravainen was available mostly for taking on 1 more year of Bickell's big contract.
Toronto gave up a 1st for Carolina to take the last year of Marleau's contract.

This summer we wanted to have cap space because Aho's agent managed to convince MB to be 90% sure Carolina wouldn't match the contract he offer sheet-ed him.

 

[BaseballCoach]

So Julien is sheltering Danault's defensive side with Gallagher? Do you think Gallagher can shelter Kotkaniemi or Domi and get the same 5/5 results? Danault is a perfect middle 2C IMO and he does a lot out there. I'm open to shuffling up the lines but not desperate for it to happen until Kotkaniemi can be a more effective top 2C. We have to remain patient unfortunately while both Kotkaniemi and Domi mature as centers. When Poehling is ready, Domi is moved to his wing IMO. When Kotkaniemi is ready, Danault moves to 3C. I'm ok with this

We have to remember management's goal is to make the playoffs. They don't see it like how some fans do where we want to let the kids have important roles while they make mistakes on the job. Considering the circumstance of what management wants, it makes sense on what they are trying at the moment. We are not a 100% rebuilding team.

You were making perfect sense right up until you said that Danault 2.0 should displace our most productive C in many, many years. Give Poehling the middle of the ice to dominate while asking Domi to win the board battles.

For Pricesake, I wish Domi had not been obtained in the Galchenyuk trade. Too much baggage from the old C/LW debates re Chucky. If he had been drafted by us and called a center by the GM, fans would be LOVING his production and crying if he'd be moved to the wing.

 

[BaseballCoach]

Thats a heck of a demande, Baseballcoach. Good thing I have homework to do, or I wouldn't be doing this.


The Marchand-Bergeron-Pasta
The Keller-Stepan-Kessel line
The Olofsson-Eichel-Reinhart line
T........

Thanks for the work. Now I'll do the work of looking up the 5-on-5 stats and ranking the lines. I'm genuinely curious if the statement that our line is one of the top 5-on-5 lines is true or not.

 

[Mrb1p]

Thanks for the work. Now I'll do the work of looking up the 5-on-5 stats and ranking the lines. I'm genuinely curious if the statement that our line is one of the top 5-on-5 lines is true or not.

How would you rank the 5 on 5 stats? Its hard to do because lines dont actually exist in a vacuum, they work as units of 6.

 

[sergejean]

With all that cap space for all those years, we could have used it to our advantage.

Terravainen was available mostly for taking on 1 more year of Bickell's big contract.
Toronto gave up a 1st for Carolina to take the last year of Marleau's contract.

This summer we wanted to have cap space because Aho's agent managed to convince MB to be 90% sure Carolina wouldn't match the contract he offer sheet-ed him.

If I recall, at the time Teravainen was traded, I believe we were pretty much up to the cap. As for Marleau, I'm pretty sure the same deal was not offered to the Habs.

 

[26Mats]

If I recall, at the time Teravainen was traded, I believe we were pretty much up to the cap. As for Marleau, I'm pretty sure the same deal was not offered to the Habs.

My recollection was that we weren't yet up to the cap. But MB wanted the cap space for the coming off season.
Plus, again this is just my recollection, there were a lot of contracts I was willing to trade to make the cap space to get Teravainen. I remembered a report from rds where Stephane Leroux said how much Timmins liked Teravainen - that he was even considering drafting him 3rd overall. It seemed clear at least that Chicago gave up on him too early, whatever he was to become.

 

[BaseballCoach]

How would you rank the 5 on 5 stats? Its hard to do because lines don't actually exist in a vacuum, they work as units of 6.

It is hard to do, but I would start with ES goals scored by the three forwards together and +/- of the three forwards. Given that the Danault line played against top lines more than their share, this could give us an idea of their 5-on-5 value. No doubt the PP would be another matter, as neither Danault nor Gallagher produced on it. But we can't forget that the claim being tested is how good the Danault line was at 5-on-5.

So, for 2018-19, here are the simplified stats for ES play. I've totaled them by adding the ES Goals scored plus 1/3 of the +/-

93.3 = 76 G, +53 for Kapanen-Tavares-Marner
89.3 = 71 G, +55 for Stamkos-Point-Kucherov line
87.3 = 69 G, +55 for Gaudreau-Monahan-Lindholm
87.0 = 76G, +33 for Panarin-Dubois-Atkinson line
82.7 = 65 G, +53 for Benn-Seguin-Radulov
81.3 = 68 G, +40 for Landeskog-Mackinnon-Rantanen
78.0 = 62 G, +48 for Danault-Gallagher-Tatar
77.7 = 63 G, +44 for Marchand-Bergeron-Pasta
77.3 = 68 G, +28 for Guentzel-Crosby-Hornqvist
76.3 = 75 G, +4 for Draisaitl-McDavid-Chiasson
70.7 = 66 G, +14 for Ovi-Backstrom-Oshie
70.3 = 57 G, +40 for Vrana-Kuznetsov-Connoly (Connoly had better stats than Wilson)
70.0 = 61 G, +27 for Forsberg-RyJo-Arvidsson
69.0 = 52 G, +51 for Nino-Aho-Teravainen line
66.7 = 67 G, -1 for Couture-Kane-Meier
65.7 = 68 G, -7 for Saad-Toews-Debrincat
64.3 = 64 G, +1 for Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler line
62.3 = 61 G, +4 for Kahun-Strome-Kane
61.0 = 55 G, +18 for Pacioretty-Statsny-Stone
59.0 = 63 G, -12 for Giroux-Couturier-Konecny
58.3 = 49 G, +28 for Palat-Johnson-Gourde
58.0 = 50 G, +24 for Sundqvit-ROR-Perron line (Sundqvist had the 6th most ES goals of the F)
58.0 = 59 G, -3 for Bertuzzi-Larkin-Mantha
55.3 = 50 G, +16 for Marchesseault-Karlsson-Rielly
53.3 = 61 G, -23 for Huberdeau-Barkov-Dadonov
47.7 = 48 G, -1 for Jonnson-Matthews-Nylander
44.7 = 43 G, +5 for Schwartz-Schenn-Tarasenko
41.0 = 44 G, -9 for Goldobin-Pettersson-Boeser
39.0 = 40 G, -3 for Bailey-Barzal-Eberle
37.0 = 50 G, -39 for Olofsson-Eichel-Reinhart (using Sheary last year, Oloffson has no ES goals anyway)
34.7 = 45 G, -34 for Laine-Little-Ehlers line
32.0 = 41 G, -27 for Silfverberg-Rakell-Henrique
25.0 = 39 G, -42 for Keller-Stepan-Kessel (using Kessel's PIT stats)

The Habs line in 2018-19 was 7th out of 33 lines in ES goals scored/plus-minus. They were 13th in goals scored alone, and 5th in plus-minus.

This is better than you probably thought but not as good as anyone who thought they were top 6.

Furthermore, they played in front of league average goaltending in terms of save percentage over 82 games, and a worse-than-average defence.

Conclusion: Danault-Gallagher-Tatar were in fact one of the better ES lines in the league, 7th out of 124 lines. But they are not elite because they don't dominate on the PP. Another thing is their defence this year seems not as good as last year, from my eye test. But you have to hand it to them for 2018-19, they were really, really good at 5-on-5.

 

[Archijerej]

KK needs more time, especially on the PP, we all agree on that

Do we?

 

[Mrb1p]

It is hard to do, but I would start with ES goals scored by the three forwards together and +/- of the three forwards. Given that the Danault line played against to lines more than their share, this could give us an idea of their 5-on-5 value. No doubt the PP wouyld be another matter, as neither Danault nor Gallagher produced on it. But we can't forget that the claim being tested is how good the Danault line was at 5-on-5.

So, for 2018-19, here are the simplified stats for ES play. I've totalled them by adding the ES Goals scored plus 1/3 of the +/-

93.3 = 76 G, +53 for Kapanen-Tavares-Marner
89.3 = 71 G, +55 for Stamkos-Point-Kucherov line
87.3 = 69 G, +55 for Gaudreau-Monahan-Lindholm
87.0 = 76G, +33 for Panarin-Dubois-Atkinson line
82.7 = 65 G, +53 for Benn-Seguin-Radulov
81.3 = 68 G, +40 for Landeskog-Mackinnon-Rantanen
78.0 = 62 G, +48 for Danault-Gallagher-Tatar
77.7 = 63 G, +44 for Marchand-Bergeron-Pasta
77.3 = 68 G, +28 for Guentzel-Crosby-Hornqvist
76.3 = 75 G, +4 for Draisaitl-McDavid-Chiasson
70.7 = 66 G, +14 for Ovi-Backstrom-Oshie
70.3 = 57 G, +40 for Vrana-Kuznetsov-Connoly (Connoly had better stats than Wilson)
70.0 = 61 G, +27 for Forsberg-RyJo-Arvidsson
69.0 = 52 G, +51 for Nino-Aho-Teravainen line
66.7 = 67 G, -1 for Couture-Kane-Meier
65.7 = 68 G, -7 for Saad-Toews-Debrincat
64.3 = 64 G, +1 for Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler line
62.3 = 61 G, +4 for Kahun-Strome-Kane
61.0 = 55 G, +18 for Pacioretty-Statsny-Stone
59.0 = 63 G, -12 for Giroux-Couturier-Konecny
58.3 = 49 G, +28 for Palat-Johnson-Gourde
58.0 = 50 G, +24 for Sundqvit-ROR-Perron line (Sundqvist had the 6th most ES goals of the F)
58.0 = 59 G, -3 for Bertuzzi-Larkin-Mantha
55.3 = 50 G, +16 for Marchesseault-Karlsson-Rielly
53.3 = 61 G, -23 for Huberdeau-Barkov-Dadonov
47.7 = 48 G, -1 for Jonnson-Matthews-Nylander
44.7 = 43 G, +5 for Schwartz-Schenn-Tarasenko
41.0 = 44 G, -9 for Goldobin-Pettersson-Boeser
39.0 = 40 G, -3 for Bailey-Barzal-Eberle
37.0 = 50 G, -39 for Olofsson-Eichel-Reinhart (using Sheary last year, Oloffson has no ES goals anyway)
34.7 = 45 G, -34 for Laine-Little-Ehlers line
32.0 = 41 G, -27 for Silfverberg-Rakell-Henrique
25.0 = 39 G, -42 for Keller-Stepan-Kessel (using Kessel's PIT stats)

The Habs line in 2018-19 was 7th out of 33 lines in ES goals scored/plus-minus. They were 13th in goals scored alone, and 5th in plus-minus.

This is better than you probably thought but not as good as anyone who thought they were top 6.

Furthermore, they played in front of league average goaltending in terms of save percentage over 82 games, and a worse-than-average defence.

Conclusion: Danault-Gallagher-Tatar were in fact one of the better ES lines in the league, 7th out of 124 lines. But they are not elite because they don't dominate on the PP. Another thing is their defence this year seems not as good as last year, from my eye test. But you have to hand it to them for 2018-19, they were really, really good at 5-on-5.

League average goaltending? For 20 games maybe, but how do you call Price average? In fact, it's something most teams dont have. They also almost exclusively get deployed with the Habs top pair.

 

[BaseballCoach]

League average goaltending? For 20 games maybe, but how do you call Price average? In fact, it's something most teams dont have. They also almost exclusively get deployed with the Habs top pair.

For the whole season, for all the goalies, our save percentage was average last year. Habs .912, league average .911

As for being deployed with Weber and Mete, first it was nowhere near "almost exclusive", second all teams play their top pair-D frequently against the other team's top lines - Montreal was not unique. Third how is Mete a legit first-pairing guy anyway?

The FACTS are that we had top-half offensive numbers and near-elite defensive numbers from our "first" line last year, and furthermore, by matching up like they did, it allowed Domi to get a ton of points at ES too.

 

[Mario le Magnifique]

It is hard to do, but I would start with ES goals scored by the three forwards together and +/- of the three forwards. Given that the Danault line played against to lines more than their share, this could give us an idea of their 5-on-5 value. No doubt the PP wouyld be another matter, as neither Danault nor Gallagher produced on it. But we can't forget that the claim being tested is how good the Danault line was at 5-on-5.

So, for 2018-19, here are the simplified stats for ES play. I've totalled them by adding the ES Goals scored plus 1/3 of the +/-

93.3 = 76 G, +53 for Kapanen-Tavares-Marner
89.3 = 71 G, +55 for Stamkos-Point-Kucherov line
87.3 = 69 G, +55 for Gaudreau-Monahan-Lindholm
87.0 = 76G, +33 for Panarin-Dubois-Atkinson line
82.7 = 65 G, +53 for Benn-Seguin-Radulov
81.3 = 68 G, +40 for Landeskog-Mackinnon-Rantanen
78.0 = 62 G, +48 for Danault-Gallagher-Tatar
77.7 = 63 G, +44 for Marchand-Bergeron-Pasta
77.3 = 68 G, +28 for Guentzel-Crosby-Hornqvist
76.3 = 75 G, +4 for Draisaitl-McDavid-Chiasson
70.7 = 66 G, +14 for Ovi-Backstrom-Oshie
70.3 = 57 G, +40 for Vrana-Kuznetsov-Connoly (Connoly had better stats than Wilson)
70.0 = 61 G, +27 for Forsberg-RyJo-Arvidsson
69.0 = 52 G, +51 for Nino-Aho-Teravainen line
66.7 = 67 G, -1 for Couture-Kane-Meier
65.7 = 68 G, -7 for Saad-Toews-Debrincat
64.3 = 64 G, +1 for Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler line
62.3 = 61 G, +4 for Kahun-Strome-Kane
61.0 = 55 G, +18 for Pacioretty-Statsny-Stone
59.0 = 63 G, -12 for Giroux-Couturier-Konecny
58.3 = 49 G, +28 for Palat-Johnson-Gourde
58.0 = 50 G, +24 for Sundqvit-ROR-Perron line (Sundqvist had the 6th most ES goals of the F)
58.0 = 59 G, -3 for Bertuzzi-Larkin-Mantha
55.3 = 50 G, +16 for Marchesseault-Karlsson-Rielly
53.3 = 61 G, -23 for Huberdeau-Barkov-Dadonov
47.7 = 48 G, -1 for Jonnson-Matthews-Nylander
44.7 = 43 G, +5 for Schwartz-Schenn-Tarasenko
41.0 = 44 G, -9 for Goldobin-Pettersson-Boeser
39.0 = 40 G, -3 for Bailey-Barzal-Eberle
37.0 = 50 G, -39 for Olofsson-Eichel-Reinhart (using Sheary last year, Oloffson has no ES goals anyway)
34.7 = 45 G, -34 for Laine-Little-Ehlers line
32.0 = 41 G, -27 for Silfverberg-Rakell-Henrique
25.0 = 39 G, -42 for Keller-Stepan-Kessel (using Kessel's PIT stats)

The Habs line in 2018-19 was 7th out of 33 lines in ES goals scored/plus-minus. They were 13th in goals scored alone, and 5th in plus-minus.

This is better than you probably thought but not as good as anyone who thought they were top 6.

Furthermore, they played in front of league average goaltending in terms of save percentage over 82 games, and a worse-than-average defence.

Conclusion: Danault-Gallagher-Tatar were in fact one of the better ES lines in the league, 7th out of 124 lines. But they are not elite because they don't dominate on the PP. Another thing is their defence this year seems not as good as last year, from my eye test. But you have to hand it to them for 2018-19, they were really, really good at 5-on-5.

Thanks for debunking this non-sense that Danault rides coattails, let's give credit where it is due, good 200ft player who brings more positive than negative to the table. Ideally he'd be deployed as third line center but as a 2B bandaid he also does an adequate job, but not on a contending team. Imagine what this team would look like if we'd bring a better player than Danault in his spot... Team would be undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with at 5v5. Danault's critics are legitimate, but he's definitely not a bad asset. And since he's bound for a hefty raise, I'm thinking he might be a good rental for a Playoffs team if Habs aren't in at deadline. I'm unsure if he hits UFA or RFA but if he's UFA you collect the rental then try to resign him at a decent price, but I'm afraid he's gonna ask the moon with how inflated his stats are. IMHO he can be a 30-40 points guy on your third line, killing penalties, and those are valuable pieces, but they're not longterm 5+M valuable.

 

[Mrb1p]

For the whole season, for all the goalies, our save percentage was average last year. Habs .912, league average .911

As for being deployed with Weber and Mete, first it was nowhere near "almost exclusive", second all teams play their top pair-D frequently against the other team's top lines - Montreal was not unique. Third how is Mete a legit first-pairing guy anyway?

The FACTS are that we had top-half offensive numbers and near-elite defensive numbers from our "first" line last year, and furthermore, by matching up like they did, it allowed Domi to get a ton of points at ES too.

Prices .915 is just a stat, it doesn't mean the same as Reimers 915.

You also dont take into account pairings, ice-time, ES deployment, most played against opponent, goalies faced, opposing team save %, etc.

Also you bring up Mete but forget he ranked near the top of the league in goal differential last year for a good part of the year.

But really the big problem is when your metric tells you that the Danault line is better at playing hockey than the McDavid line. Maybe you should reconsider that.

 

[DangerDave]

I don't see the harm in splitting the Danault line. It's effective no doubt but these guys could be more effective apart from each other for all we know. We've rarely split them up.

Danault is a good possession player but his shooting and playmaking is average. He's the sort of guy who plays independent of his teammates and contributes on his own regardless of who he's with.

Tatar and Gally are perhaps our best finishers so why not see what they can do with our best playmakers in Domi and Drouin. Hell, why not pair em with our young guys and see if it can kickstart their offense.

 

[Rapala]

Danault is the new Patrice Bergeron.

Thrillip Danault.

 

[BaseballCoach]

Tatar and Gally are perhaps our best finishers so why not see what they can do with our best playmakers in Domi and Drouin. Hell, why not pair em with our young guys and see if it can kickstart their offense.

Sounds good but I don't know if you want to play with only 1 D or with an extra man and hope the linesmen don't notice.

 

[DangerDave]

Sounds good but I don't know if you want to play with only 1 D or with an extra man and hope the linesmen don't notice.

Here let me help you visualise it:

Drouin- Domi - Gally
Lehkonen - Danault - Suzuki/Armia
Tatar - KK - Armia/Suzuki

You still have your defensive line that can log big minutes and still produce (though we could upgrade Lehky). You have a line that you can use to shred 3rd pairings. And finally you have a true top line.

Why not try it? It makes sense on paper anyways