Salary Cap: Salary Cap + Roster building: "All of your Pittsburgh born players belong to us"

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Dipsy Doodle

Rent A Barn
May 28, 2006
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Petts is not as good as Ian Cole yet. I get being excited about the kid, and I do think he'll be an impact player for us for years, but he's still pretty raw and looked like he wore down as the season came to a close and the playoffs began. To me, he should be given bottom pairing minutes as he continues to play through growing pains and develop at the NHL level.

Agree to disagree on the Geno front though. If Phil leaves, which he will for numerous reasons, we've got zero scoring wingers for Geno to play with. That's a colossal problem.

But again, we agree on the blueline. It's an absolute dumpster fire and has dramatic effect on our ability to pressure offensively and/or score. Too bad our GM sees it as the best blueline he's had since he got here.

This is really what it boils down to. It doesn't matter if we get Panarin this summer if JJ is still our #3 and ZAR is still put in a scoring line role. We can't get a reasonable handle on Geno or Phil until we address the elephants in the room that the org don't seem to think are a big problem. I fear the org's going to make Phil a scapegoat, replace him with another scoring winger, then wonder why the 2nd line is still hemmed in their own end with ZAR trusted to chase down pucks for them on the forecheck and Johnson trusted to get them the puck in transition. Real head scratcher there.

Ideally we'd let Pettersson gestate awhile longer on the bottom pairing, but it's not like playing with Guds is an easy assignment. Playing with Schultz on the 2nd pairing may actually be less demanding on him, and Riikola ought to get a reasonable shot on the big cub next season.
 
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