I think it also depend on how we elect to structure the 4th line. The idea of the 4th line being a checking line is sort of antiquated. If we set the line up to be an energy or offensive / skill 4th line, I'm okay with Poulin getting time on it. Poulin-Bleuger-Tanev, I would be okay with. Poulin-Lafferty-Tanev, same. As long as the direction isn't "Go out there an hit sum1!", I'm good.
We're definitely in agreement on that last part. I think Sullivan's hopes were more that this 4th line (ZAR-Blueger-Tanev) was filling more of the traditional role of the shutdown line. Both in practice and role the 4th line acted more like the traditional 3rd line while the hope was to have that 3rd line act as a third scoring line...but we all know how well that worked. If we have the manpower to do so, I'm not against this structure. To get that to work requires rebuilding the "third" line entirely. The "fourth" line worked very well and Blueger and Tanev are both closer to ~30 point 3rd liners from a decade ago than traditional 4th liners in terms of skill set and utilization, while ZAR was there for the board battles. Girgensons would pretty much be a plug and play fix for ZAR that is almost too obvious to happen, right down to the taste of offensive talent being shown once every 30 games or so. I do think Girgensons has a 3rd liner level capability that a change of scenery could tap...I just wonder if he wasn't stuck in Buffalo too long for that to still be on the table. That said, he's only 8 months older than ZAR. Damn it Buffalo, stop rushing kids to the league before they're close to being ready. Drafted out of the USHL, signed to play in the AHL as an 18 year-old where he only puts up 17 points in 61 games, and then in the NHL from then on playing almost exclusively in defensive roles and being the target of ridicule for not producing enough to warrant the hype when he's starting 42% of his shifts in the defensive zone with little support. If you want to know how to destroy a kid's offensive ceiling, never allowing them to play in the offensive zone beyond the USHL will be efficiently inefficient. God damn it, Buffalo. f***. That's some Pirates-ass shit.
Just about anything short of thinking this team needs to be tougher in the mold of truculent fourth liners will result in a massive improvement on what that third line gave us in the playoffs. I hope Poulin is part of the answer sooner rather than later, but I do think Hörnqvist is unfortunately going to make it difficult to make that ideal line-up. Hörnqvist can't exactly go on the fourth line if it's being used as the shutdown line, can't be on a third line that can't enter the zone, and can't go in the top six without pissing someone off. I love Hörny to death, but him having a full NMC for another year might be the killer in terms of icing that 'ideal' line-up...on the flip side Hörny's presence in pen on that "third" line may make Sid or Geno's line the only plausible fit for Poulin, which would certainly be a better way to see what he has in a potential a 9 game trial than off-wing in the bottom six...
I have no doubting JR's desire to make a bunch of moves, but I don't know how easily that'll be accomplished on a short schedule with most teams in the league trying to shed salary, many of which desperately. I'm pretty sure every team will make at least one move that will piss fans off this off-season with long-term plans getting shredded league-wide a couple weeks after the trade deadline.
And there's an expansion draft looming in less than a year that was already going to have certain teams panicking to prove that they're not panicking.
