Igor Shestyorkin
#26, the sickest of 'em all.
I get your point, but a few things.
Firstly, McI has developed a lot on a steady bases several years in a row now. And his development from say late 14' until now has been great. From a bit shaky stay-at-home D in the AHL to a rock solid legit top pairing D/solid 6-7 D in the NHL.
There is absolutely no reason to expect him to -- stop -- developing September 2015 if you get what I mean. Its the opposite. My best bet is that he will keep developing for a good half decade. You know, Glass is a stiff. McIlrath is not a stiff. He is more of a solid natural 2-way D that due to skating limitations and not being that early developed have to step back a bit into a stay-at-home D role.
My point is just, if he is close now I would expect him to be more established in a year, and a real positive factor in 2-3 years.
Secondly, we play in the toughest division in the league. Physical play will always be a factor. We complain on Glass always in connection to everything. Facts are that if you are responsible for putting a team on the ice, if you do not have a single player on the roster that can drop the gloves, game in and game out, season in and season out, I am sure anyone get skeptical of not having any single player on the ice that knows its ways in these areas. Its your ass that gets fired if things go south and -- nobody -- will step up and defend you if things goes south and you dressed the softest roster in the NHL.
McIlrath is a hockey player much more than a 4th line goon, and hence its very valuable to have a player in that capacity that doesn't require you to dress a goon.
Thirdly, our play in front of Hank has been an issue to against teams like LAK for example. McI is very good in that area.
My point is just, from my POV its just worth a lot to get McIlrath on board. Especially for the coming 5-10 years. If he is just decent right now, I like it.
Good post about McI. The only thing I disagree with is saying that we are in the "toughest" division in the league. Well I don't know if you mean really good tough or physical tough but yeah, I think the central is the best division. Metro is the best division in the east no doubts about it though.