Player Discussion Ryan Donato

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Northerner

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If that's your opinion I respect it, its definitely not mine though. Dont let his play with Boston skew what he was here. He was largely an invisible player for us imo. A ghost on the ice with minnesota.


Yeah unfortunately I have to agree. It's amusing to me to see all these Bawston folks slobber over him. Of course he was going to be at least a little better on a better team, and his stretch these playoffs entirely looks like a fluke to me. And add in the fact that's he's a Bawston kid now playing for the home team...yep, just looks like he's having a nice run that will not be sustained.


He will NOT sustain that next season(s). But if he does, oh well. I saw Donato at the Olympics and he was fantastic. I liked the trade for him.


That said, a lot of players either leave here and do good or come here and regress. I think the culture around the organization isn't the best. If only we were the legendary NORTH STARS maybe players would have a little more pride and integrity working for/putting on the sweater.
 

a79krgm

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Again, that's opinion. What I see in Boston is a reenergized Coyle.

I tend to agree. For some reason, that I can't put my finger on, Coyle is a different player in Boston. I know his "supporting cast" is much better so I did expect him to look better in Beantown, but he's playing with more confidence. He's getting off his shots quicker and attacking the net much more. I'm wondering if it's got to do with playing in his hometown. Dunno.
 

BagHead

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Dec 23, 2010
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Yeah unfortunately I have to agree. It's amusing to me to see all these Bawston folks slobber over him. Of course he was going to be at least a little better on a better team, and his stretch these playoffs entirely looks like a fluke to me. And add in the fact that's he's a Bawston kid now playing for the home team...yep, just looks like he's having a nice run that will not be sustained.


He will NOT sustain that next season(s). But if he does, oh well. I saw Donato at the Olympics and he was fantastic. I liked the trade for him.


That said, a lot of players either leave here and do good or come here and regress. I think the culture around the organization isn't the best. If only we were the legendary NORTH STARS maybe players would have a little more pride and integrity working for/putting on the sweater.

Man, I was a huge North Stars fan, but let's be real with each other here, they were a terrible team for most of their existence. Their winning seasons were 2 seasons from 71-73, then 5 straight from 79-84, and then a final one in 85-86. 26 total seasons, and 8 of them with a winning record. That's not a legendary team with a great culture. It's the Columbus Blue Jackets with cooler jerseys.

As for Coyle playing better in Boston, I think it's largely a perception thing. When he was here we were looking at him to be a big scorer, while there he is supposed to be playing good defense and chipping in offense as a 3rd liner. His raw production is about the same there as it was here, so he's not actually playing better offensively. He's getting about the same amount of minutes there as he did here. I can't speak to his defensive play in Boston, but it was - at its worst - solid while he played for the Wild. He's been about as "good" on the draw in Boston as he was here.

To me he looks like the same player, with different expectations.
 
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Northerner

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Am I missing something? I haven't been able to watch a lot of games lately.


Centers should be (in no order)

Ek
Donato
Koivu
Staal
 

AKL

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Weird, who would have seen it coming that the kid plays well and looks good when he’s not getting 7 minutes a game with fourth liners?

@2Pair are you as perplexed as I am here?
 

DonatoisDaddy

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Sep 25, 2019
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Weird, who would have seen it coming that the kid plays well and looks good when he’s not getting 7 minutes a game with fourth liners?

@2Pair are you as perplexed as I am here?
I've said it since the day I joined the message boards as well AKL
 
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Bazeek

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At some point I'm going to dig through game logs to nail down which ones he spent in the top-6 and what his production was like in those games. Between this year and last he's got to be close to a point-per-game when getting quality minutes.

He does have work to do defensively, but that might just come down to adding strength and experience. He's not lazy and sounds like a high-character kid. Given time and opportunity he'll round out nicely.
 

AKL

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At some point I'm going to dig through game logs to nail down which ones he spent in the top-6 and what his production was like in those games. Between this year and last he's got to be close to a point-per-game when getting quality minutes.

He does have work to do defensively, but that might just come down to adding strength and experience. He's not lazy and sounds like a high-character kid. Given time and opportunity he'll round out nicely.

Which is why it blows my mind when people are ready to ship him out for scraps or as a throwaway because he didn’t look good on the fourth line getting 7 minutes a night. And then someone like 57 says “why are you saying playing with Foligno and Hartman is a bad thing, they’ve been good this season” which perplexes me even more.

I mean you’ve said it before, I think Zucker is the guy to move, keep Fiala and Donato because they fit in with the future core of guys like Boldy, Khovanov, etc.
 

thestonedkoala

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Weird, who would have seen it coming that the kid plays well and looks good when he’s not getting 7 minutes a game with fourth liners?

So, who do you trade now? Fiala and Zucker? Greenway and Zucker? Parise and Zucker? Problem is, Donato is up in the top 6 only because of injuries.

Donato still has a ways to go before slotting him permanently in the top 6.
 

Bazeek

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Which is why it blows my mind when people are ready to ship him out for scraps or as a throwaway because he didn’t look good on the fourth line getting 7 minutes a night. And then someone like 57 says “why are you saying playing with Foligno and Hartman is a bad thing, they’ve been good this season” which perplexes me even more.

I mean you’ve said it before, I think Zucker is the guy to move, keep Fiala and Donato because they fit in with the future core of guys like Boldy, Khovanov, etc.
I do agree with 57 on Foligno and Hartman being quality guys as 4th liners go. They actually get a good number of scoring chances, which last night was a good example of (though the Oilers' bottom-6 is pretty bad).

Still, expectations have to match the opportunities. Even on a good 4th line he's looking at <10 minutes a night with zero powerplay time, which isn't going to result in many points. Same thing would happen with Zucker, Parise, Fiala, etc.

I'm kind of holding my breath on this whole center experiment, because I haven't hated him there. I can't imagine it working out long term, but man would that kill two enormous birds with one stone. And hell, if you would've asked me two months ago if Carson Soucy could be a top-4 defenseman (and play both sides) I would've told you no.
 

DonatoisDaddy

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So, who do you trade now? Fiala and Zucker? Greenway and Zucker? Parise and Zucker? Problem is, Donato is up in the top 6 only because of injuries.

Donato still has a ways to go before slotting him permanently in the top 6.
I might be sounding crazy, but hear me out:

Trade Zucker for some early round picks. Slot Koivu in at 2C and Fiala on 1LW... Zucarello can set up two shooters, and Koivu and Parise can set up Donato for shots on the 2nd line. So in my fantasy land lines look like:
Fiala Staal Lizard
Donato Koivu Parise
G E ek K
Hartman Rask Foligno

Suter Spurge
Brodin Soucy/Dumba
Hunt Soucy/Dumba
 

AKL

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So, who do you trade now? Fiala and Zucker? Greenway and Zucker? Parise and Zucker? Problem is, Donato is up in the top 6 only because of injuries.

Donato still has a ways to go before slotting him permanently in the top 6.

Zucker and Greenway. You can’t trade Parise, and he can fill in for Greenway on that line. You can still call it the PEEK Squad (and as an added bonus you don’t have to worry about infringing on Best Buy’s trademark).

Zucker has the most value as a win now piece. Greenway is replaceable as a bottom six guy. Fiala and Donato have value as future top 6 guys.

I do agree with 57 on Foligno and Hartman being quality guys as 4th liners go. They actually get a good number of scoring chances, which last night was a good example of (though the Oilers' bottom-6 is pretty bad).

Still, expectations have to match the opportunities. Even on a good 4th line he's looking at <10 minutes a night with zero powerplay time, which isn't going to result in many points. Same thing would happen with Zucker, Parise, Fiala, etc.

I'm kind of holding my breath on this whole center experiment, because I haven't hated him there. I can't imagine it working out long term, but man would that kill two enormous birds with one stone. And hell, if you would've asked me two months ago if Carson Soucy could be a top-4 defenseman (and play both sides) I would've told you no.

I don’t take exception to saying Foligno and Hartman have been good this year. I take exception to using it to try to prop up an argument that Donato should be better than he has been with them.

Would love for Donato to work out as center. I don’t see it happening, but yeah, it would be great. But you know what’s going to happen is Koivu will come back and Donato will be kicked back to his fourth line role, and people will complain that his production stopped again.
 

thestonedkoala

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Zucker and Greenway. You can’t trade Parise, and he can fill in for Greenway on that line. You can still call it the PEEK Squad (and as an added bonus you don’t have to worry about infringing on Best Buy’s trademark).

Zucker has the most value as a win now piece. Greenway is replaceable as a bottom six guy. Fiala and Donato have value as future top 6 guys.

Greenway though isn't replaceable as a bottom 6 guy. Also Parise has been one of the best and most reliable scorers for Minnesota, why drop him down to the 3rd line? I get we can trade Zucker now (he's in line for another 30 goal season).

We'll see if Donato ends up turning the corner or not. Seems like Galchenyuk myself...
 

Dr Jan Itor

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What's the hypothesis on Donato, that had he been in Parise's spot from the get-go that we'd be looking at a 40+20 or 30+30 guy right now? Because I don't think I'm quite there yet.
 

AKL

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What's the hypothesis on Donato, that had he been in Parise's spot from the get-go that we'd be looking at a 40+20 or 30+30 guy right now? Because I don't think I'm quite there yet.

I think he’d be pacing slightly behind Zucker at this point. Around that 11+11, give or take a couple of each.

He’s at 6+3 right now. He’d be markedly better than that with Parise or Zucker’s opportunity. Had 16 in 22 in the top 6 last season. Which is a 60 point pace.
 

Bazeek

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What's the hypothesis on Donato, that he had been in Parise's spot from the get-go that we'd be looking at a 40+20 or 30+30 guy right now? Because I don't think I'm there yet.
I think if he'd spent the year in Zucker or Parise's spots (along with the powerplay minutes) he'd be closer to 20 points than he would be to 10. I don't think he's done enough to justify stealing either of those spots from either of those players, but it's something to bear in mind when thinking about what he is or can be.

A better example might be if Donato had been the guy to nab that RW spot instead of Fiala. I think Fiala's better and is a good fit there, but I also think we would've seen a similar surge from Donato. And again, before that move there was plenty of talk of trading Fiala for whatever we could get while now things are much more measured.

Donato might still end up drawing the short straw in all of this, but I'd much rather trade him as a player that's shown an ability to put up points and goals when given the opportunity than as a guy that spent the entire year alternating between the 4th line and the press box.
 
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