Salary Cap: Salary Cap + Roster Building (Cap Details in First Post) | Roster Freeze Ends 12:01am Dec 28

[Gurglesons]

Aston-Reese, Sheahan, Rust was actually a line I proposed a few days back. I think it has the makings of a solid 3rd line if Sully wants to keep stacking the top 6, but if that's the route we are going, I would 100% rather see this team move Brass for a winger, rental or whatever, someone who is better at wing than center converted into one.

I can’t wait to see ZAR - Sheahan - Rust go up another team’s third line..

 

[Honour Over Glory]

I don’t think Sullivan is perfect. His insistence on Rust on the first line and Kessel with Malkin is weird (I think that is more on Sid and Geno) and Riikola’s usage is relatively inexcusable, but JR has really f’d over this team since winning back to back which is just odd.

And by odd I mean why didn’t they make him president and get Botts as GM because we’d have Skinner and Scandella and I’d be high as ****.

Scandella...eh I'm not a fan, but Skinner yes.

Also we'd have no JJ, that'd be a huge plus.

But no, we now wait for Guerin as a GM which might just make me stop watching hockey altogether.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

I can’t wait to see ZAR - Sheahan - Rust go up another team’s third line..

I can't tell if you mean that in a good way or bad way.

 

[Gurglesons]

I can't tell if you mean that in a good way or bad way.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

I'd give it time to gel.

Sheahan & Rust look good together, Sheahan is about as physical as my 10 month niece, but Rust has some sand paper to his game so does ZAR. I'd ideally rather see Pearson-Sheahan-Rust, but beggars can't be choosers.

 

[Gurglesons]

I'd give it time to gel.

Sheahan & Rust look good together, Sheahan is about as physical as my 10 month niece, but Rust has some sand paper to his game so does ZAR. I'd ideally rather see Pearson-Sheahan-Rust, but beggars can't be choosers.

Why would you roll Pearson - Sheahan - Rust when you can roll Pearson - Brassard - Rust and some combo of ZAR, Cullen, Sheahan and Grant as a 4th?

Jake - Crosby - Hornqvist / Kessel
Simon - Malkin - Hornqvist / Kessel

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Why would you roll Pearson - Sheahan - Rust when you can roll Pearson - Brassard - Rust and some combo of ZAR, Cullen, Sheahan and Grant as a 4th?

Jake - Crosby - Hornqvist / Kessel
Simon - Malkin - Hornqvist / Kessel

More so right now. It drives me nuts to see Sheahan used as a freaking RW'er. Sullivan is just the worst with his "ideas" on that sort of shit.

Pearson-Brass-Rust looks good though when we're healthy.

 

[EightyOne]

Why would you roll Pearson - Sheahan - Rust when you can roll Pearson - Brassard - Rust and some combo of ZAR, Cullen, Sheahan and Grant as a 4th?

Jake - Crosby - Hornqvist / Kessel
Simon - Malkin - Hornqvist / Kessel

Because Sullivan would never do it, man

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Because Sullivan would never do it, man

Sully goes full Pejorative Slur faster than any other coach we've ever had when it comes to creating lines that stick together.

Bylsma in all of his moronic glory, managed to put some decent lines together even if his usage of scrubs was frustrating as hell. So far we've had the best lines for each player, under Bylstard's tenure.

Kunitz, Crosby, Dupuis - Like who would have ever thought that would be one of the best combo's of Sid's career?
Malone, Malkin, Sykora & Jokinen, Malkin, Neal - Malkin cries thinking about the times he had stable line mates.

 

[Gurglesons]

More so right now. It drives me nuts to see Sheahan used as a freaking RW'er. Sullivan is just the worst with his "ideas" on that sort of ****.

Pearson-Brass-Rust looks good though when we're healthy.

If you run that it means you are playing Wilson with Sid or Malkin or moving ZAR to RW which means Cullen with Sid or Malkin.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

If you run that it means you are playing Wilson with Sid or Malkin or moving ZAR to RW which means Cullen with Sid or Malkin.

Right now. I said when healthy.

I don't know why we do this to ourselves. Discussing the line-up.

At this point, I just hope Malkin doesn't snap and say f*** you trade me.

 

[Gurglesons]

Right now. I said when healthy.

I don't know why we do this to ourselves. Discussing the line-up.

At this point, I just hope Malkin doesn't snap and say **** you trade me.

I think it is pretty obvious when healthy we will see..

Jake - Crosby - Simon
Pearson - Malkin - Kessel
ZAR - Brassard - Hornqvist
Sheahan - Cullen - Rust
Grant will be used randomly in that 4th line.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

I think it is pretty obvious when healthy we will see..

Jake - Crosby - Simon
Pearson - Malkin - Kessel
ZAR - Brassard - Hornqvist
Sheahan - Cullen - Rust
Grant will be used randomly in that 4th line.

For a shift or a period. Then we'll see any version of this:

Guentzel, Crosby, Rust
ZAR, Malkin, Hornqvist
Pearson, Brassard, Kessel
Cullen, Sheahan, Simon

Guentzel, Crosby, Kessel
Pearson, Malkin, Hornqvist
Simon, Brassard, Rust
Sheahan, Cullen, ZAR - In a bargain bin version of the Sheahan-Cullen-Horny line earlier.

And on and on...

 

[ColePens]

I think it is pretty obvious when healthy we will see..

Jake - Crosby - Simon
Pearson - Malkin - Kessel
ZAR - Brassard - Hornqvist
Sheahan - Cullen - Rust
Grant will be used randomly in that 4th line.

Definitely do not believe for a second we will see those lines. Not even a second. And sadly I like those lines, but I just don't see Sully doing that. I would believe he'd throw rust on L1 before Simon. I also do not believe we will ever see a Brass/ZAR/Horny line. I think you will see Pearson-Brass-Horny first.

Also Grant has outplayed Sheahan. I'd rather see Sheahan sit.

 

[Gurglesons]

Definitely do not believe for a second we will see those lines. Not even a second. And sadly I like those lines, but I just don't see Sully doing that. I would believe he'd throw rust on L1 before Simon. I also do not believe we will ever see a Brass/ZAR/Horny line. I think you will see Pearson-Brass-Horny first.

Also Grant has outplayed Sheahan. I'd rather see Sheahan sit.

Weird.

My ideal lines would be..

Jake - Crosby - Kessel
Simon - Malkin - Rust
Pearson - Brassard - Hornqvist
ZAR - Cullen - Grant

 

[ColePens]

I actually like those lines, too.

 

[Gurglesons]

I actually like those lines, too.

Do you really see Sully going Jake -
Crosby - Rust when healthy?

I think that is a line he goes to like Kuni - Crosby - Hornqvist in terms of “playing the game the right way”.

 

[AjaxTelamon]

Brassard has played the bulk of his time since coming back from injury with ZAR and the ghost of Bryan Rust. I want to see what he can do with Rust now that he's actually playing well. Maybe it won't work. But I expect him to get better. He's always been better. Including here last year.

Are you sure that maybe Brassard wasn't dragging other players down? I mean, what has he shown you from watching him? What's he doing well? He looks like 38 year old Chris Kunitz out there most of the time.

I don't think he's that bad, I think it's a combination of being a bad fit, and him just not putting up much effort at all. Maybe he wants a trade and isn't going to kill himself until he gets one.

Edit, at the end of the day, Brass is a spare, poor-man's Geno. He will only benefit us if Geno gets hurt, or to a lesser extent, if Sid does. Then he can take Geno's assignments and line-mates, and not waste the situation. But other than that, he's going to be an awkward fit here.

He's a player that's a luxury to have in a cap league.

 

[ColePens]

Do you really see Sully going Jake -
Crosby - Rust when healthy?

I think that is a line he goes to like Kuni - Crosby - Hornqvist in terms of “playing the game the right way”.

I just have a gut feeling. When Rusty scores, he gets slammed on Sid's line to suck. I've just seen it too many times.

 

[Gurglesons]

I just have a gut feeling. When Rusty scores, he gets slammed on Sid's line to suck. I've just seen it too many times.

I don’t know I feel like Jake - Sid - Rust is a last resort. Guess we’ll find out!

 

[Gurglesons]

Are you sure that maybe Brassard wasn't dragging other players down? I mean, what has he shown you from watching him? What's he doing well? He looks like 38 year old Chris Kunitz out there most of the time.

I don't think he's that bad, I think it's a combination of being a bad fit, and him just not putting up much effort at all. Maybe he wants a trade and isn't going to kill himself until he gets one.

I could see Brass wanting a trade to be a top six C. But, I dunno. I see him usually playing pretty well and engaged most shifts he takes.

 

[EightyOne]

I think maybe Brassard is just too subtle.

Yeah he's producing at career pace, it just never seems to positively impact a game.

He's not flashy at all. Nothing offensively or defensively stands out. Which is probably why people like me are all well Sheahan can be just as invisible so what's the point of Brass?

Even though overall, that's probably wrong.

 

[Riptide]

I usually agree with you Rip, but trying to defend the Maatta - Oleksiak pairing is just straight up trash. They are absolutely terrible together by every metric from the eye test, to GAs to the dreams I have about them that haunt me every night.

I think you mis undstood my post (or I wrote it poorly). That isn't a defense as to why I like that pairing or why I would dress Oleksiak - I don't and I wouldn't. If I had my way, Olek would be sitting as our #7 and only playing when we have injuries. And even then he'd be playing behind MP and Riikola.

But IF we are going to play him... he needs to play with Maatta or Dumoulin. JJ isn't good enough to cover for him, and it's a really tough ask to ask MP/Riikola to babysit him.

Or maybe we don’t play Olek so we don’t have to cover for him...What’s wrong with Maatta-Riikola when Letang returns?

Nothing, and it would be my preference. But until then, we need to play him with someone (or dress Ruhwedel). And of those someone's, Maatta is probably the best option, as we usually have better players to put Dumoulin with.

 

[Riptide]

So do you think he's actively hurting us or just helping less than we'd like? My point is that if we trade him, we're almost certainly going to be worse than we are right now. Brassard is a better 3C than Sheahan, Grant, or Cullen. So we would HAVE to bring back another 3C. But the teams who would be interested in him mid-season as a UFA are not going to be sending an equal 3C back.

Definitely the latter. I'm not saying that we should dump him for whatever we could get... but as we saw last spring, quality centers hold value around the league. So if we're not happy with how things have gone (and I can't imagine many are), then yes I think it's time to end the experiment, and find another option.

Brassard has played the bulk of his time since coming back from injury with ZAR and the ghost of Bryan Rust. I want to see what he can do with Rust now that he's actually playing well. Maybe it won't work. But I expect him to get better. He's always been better. Including here last year.

I mean sure... but I wouldn't be waiting if there's a deal out there that makes sense.

In the last 15 games since coming back from his injury, Brassard (3 goals and 4 points) has been out-scored by all of Crosby, Guentzel, Kessel, Malkin, Hornqvist, Rust, ZAR, Pearson and Grant, and has the same amount of points as Sheahan. Cullen and Simon are only 1 point behind Brassard despite missing 11 and 6 games respectively. In terms of points/60, Brassard is dead last among Penguins forwards. Garrett Wilson has over double the points/60 as Brassard does. People can't just keep excusing him because of what he's supposed to be.

At some point, what "should be" needs to be forgotten and what "actually is" needs to be looked at. I think we're fast approaching that point with Brassard - and we shouldn't get anywhere near the TD that's what... 10 weeks away?

were you advocating getting rid of Rust until a week ago? He was playing badly too. But he's a good hockey player, so he's now playing well again.

What do you reasonably expect we could get in a trade for Brassard? I think we'd get a solid pick.

The main difference between the two is that Rust would still be an asset for us (assuming we don't move him) 12 months from now. Brassard won't be. Thus we can be more paitent with Rust (and Maatta) then we can with Brassard, because it's worth it to us long term to allow them to sort things out. It's the same reason (or a big one anyway) why Sheary was given a million chances last season - because him at his 15/16 production levels helped the team. We don't have that luxury with Brassard, because come July he's walking. Oh... and I think a week ago most here would have moved Rust in a heartbeat if it was a decent deal.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

I don’t know I feel like Jake - Sid - Rust is a last resort. Guess we’ll find out!

It is a last resort.

That Rust goal, most of the time, those chances are rarely as fruitful as we'd like.

The chances Rust and Sid get and then squander by missing the pass or passing it back and forcing that, Rust would have 10 goals by now.

And I say this as an epic Rust homer. Rust works in the bottom 6 so well because he's just a wild card there, no one is putting their best defensive lines against him, but him against the other teams not so good defensive lines, he'll find ways with his usual cut from the left side and score on his forehand drive to the net move.

But with Sid or Geno, he's going up against top defensive units/lines, he seems to have this need to force the pass right back to Geno or Sid.