Evander Kane 4 Bill Masterton Trophy 2021
He perservered throught debt, bankruptcy, discipline issues, and haters to become a model hockey player.
EDIT: And he played with no centers and still scored 20 goals.
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GDT: Sharks vs Coyotes 7:30pm the tank is paused? Pasichnuk debuts
- Thread starter Lebanezer
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Evander Kane 4 Bill Masterton Trophy 2021
He perservered throught debt, bankruptcy, discipline issues, and haters to become a model hockey player.
EDIT: And he played with no centers and still scored 20 goals.
STL Shark
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- Mar 6, 2013
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Yeah. I would even put Balcers into that mold as well. Lots of 2/3 tweeners on the roster (not putting Barabanov there yet obviously after 2 games) that on legitimately good teams are getting bumped to the 3rd line most of the time. That said, you can also win with those guys playing up and down the lineup everywhere with three 2nd lines if you have another center that is better than Gambrell to run the 3rd line.
Either have to be loaded with top end talent that produces at an elite level (Blackhawks of the 2010's) or be super deep throughout your lineup with puck movers on the back end and good goaltending (STL 2019). We're lacking in goal and at center depth right now and that is why we're a bad team.
KarlssonsGroin
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- Jul 10, 2010
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agreed. But if your going to have those line 2-3 "tweener" wingers on lines 2-3 you need a franchise guy on line 1 and 2nd line centers on 2-3. Thats the biggest missing link right now. Center depth is the most important depth because they can improve the play of wingers better than vice versa
Agreed, Couture and Kane can produce as top line wingers, and your middle-6 would have Hertl, Balcers, and Leonard (or Barabanov) with a third line of Donato-XXX-Labanc. That's pretty damn good but you need to fill those big holes in the lineup. Would be nice to have Barzal right about now heh...
This team went from being way to deep down the middle that life long centers were converted into wingers to make them fit on the team. To we do not even have enough good centers to even fill the top 3 spots on the team, let alone having extras.
What happened to the team mentality of having centers that can also play wing is better then having the right number of center and wings evenly.
What happened to the team mentality of having centers that can also play wing is better then having the right number of center and wings evenly.
Hodge
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- Apr 27, 2021
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Most of them left or were traded. I do think that's still the team's mentality though especially if you look at who they drafted last year. Bordeleau, Wiesblatt, Robins can all play center and wing.
We gave up our center depth in the Karlsson trade. Without that trade we are Hertl, Couture, Norris, and Tierney down the middle. That doesn’t even count Stutzle.
And we still had this issue before tierney was traded as he was the only one to ever play for the sharks.
We have had center issues long before karlsson was even a backup plan to tavares.
The year before we traded for Karlsson, we had Jumbo, Couture, Hertl, Pavs, and Tierney. We lacked a true #1 but had plenty of depth at center.
I was one of em. I always said his scoring is nice but it was too easy to get him off his game and he always fell apart when things were going sour which made him, at times, a detriment. He’s made a massive turnaround this year in that department.
STL Shark
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Pavelski stopped playing center in 2013. He was firmly planted on Thornton's wing basically after Hertl's knee injury his rookie season. Early on that season the NCAA line of Nieto-Pavelski-Wingels was killing it on the 3rd line, but once Hertl went out, Pavs went full time on the wing for the remainder of his time in SJ. That was always the issue with McClellan was that he favored a top heavy top line over rolling lines with depth down the middle. To the point we were using James Sheppard and Nick Spaling at 3C before Tierney was ready for that role in his last year with the team.
Yeah the centers on the team would always come up be on the 3rd line for a year, prove they can be in the nhl and then get moved to 2nd line center behind thornton or 1st line winger with thornton.
Even at points hertl was a winger with thornton and couture during his time with the sharks so far.
My mind is getting old and line combos were never really a thing i cared for or payed attention to for the most part, but wasn't the top 5 on the team before the marleau signing with toronto. Pavs, marleau, thornton line 1, couture, hertl line 2. 5 of the top 6 being natural centers.
spintheblackcircle
incoming!!!
- Mar 1, 2002
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