I don't get this "top 6 or bust" thing with Schroeder and I never have. We've all heard the complaint about the bottom 6 being a perennial weakness of this team. If you want good 3rd and 4th lines you need to get players who can push play in the right direction against equivalent competition. Here he's done so with a similar quality of teammates this season.
Part of building a good team is being able to find (whether via draft or UFA) Corsi-positive players to play throughout your lineup. Preferably through the draft 'cos you get them on value contracts while they're establishing themselves. To me it doesn't make sense to dump players if they've shown they can outplay their counterparts on the other team at the very least.
We've had great bottom-6 guys in the past handful of years. Even right now, Higgins + Hansen + Matthias + Richardson + Burrows + Dorsett makes for a solid bottom-6. That isn't the problem, it's the top-6, specifically the 2nd line. The reason our bottom-6 looks weak is because our better grinders have had to move up to the 2nd line (like Higgins and Hansen, occasionally). This dissipates the depth of the team.
It's still well above pace for the average 3rd/4th liner. Those guys get little PP production and fall well short of 50 points at ES. What he did was miraculous for 550k.
I also believe that had the PP not been in complete disarray, that he would have eventually turned around his production there. At the same time, a certain level of normalization would have happened with his ES production. End result being a 50 point, 15 PPP, all situations middle6 player. Like a Rich Peverley.
It's a huge deal if he walks. Massive. They lose essentially their best ES per minute producer for pennies. No other FA is going to match that value.
They should still sign him. Give him term. Bonino or Vey, in all likelihood, are not going to be able to match what he did here.
Seriously, I thought I was a blind Tanev fan-boy... this is ridiculous.
You talk like his 40-something game stint was the rule, not the exception. And he's our best ES producer now because of that short stint? Even over guys like the Sedins and Burrows? That's pretty profound for a guy who would have had to move to Europe to find a job had the Canucks not given him a minimum deal. Give me a break, dude.
We have enough decent bottom-6 guys already and no team is a contender with Santorelli in their top-6. Would he be an extremely useful utility guy? Absolutely. But it doesn't kill the franchise to lose a utility player when we aren't even going to contend, anyway.
