Do you watch the games? Did you see the 4th line yet AGAIN impacting the game big time last night?
The 4th had a nice game last night--Poehling played like a madman after a couple games in the press box and drove their offense.
But 44 is still a massive weak link. Late 1st period, they had one of their GRINDING shifts where they all end up beneath the goal line hitting stuff, and then when they finally got the puck after 15 seconds, Deslauriers just ended up turning it over for a Sabres breakout where Dahlin ripped one off the crossbar. He doesn't have the patience/vision to turn a puck recovery into an opportunity or the skill to get it cleanly back to a defenseman. He turns offensive zone time into opposing rushes constantly and doesn't defend all that well in his own end.
As I've said before, Poehling and Hathaway are perfectly good 4th liners. But Deslauriers is one big goofy black hole. When the lineup is healthy, sliding Laughton or Cates onto that 4th with Poehling and Hathaway probably turns that into a fantastic unit--and also keeps a 4th line offensive talent off the top 2 lines.
Post didn't age real well. I'm guessing you're a big fantasy hockey player but not big on watching the actual games.
There's a reason players like Deslauriers and Hathaway are valued by coaches and their teammates, and often play on winning teams.
Look at Kaprizov's numbers with and without Deslauriers on the Wild. Do you think the Hughes brothers wouldn't love to have a guy like Miles Wood still in the lineup in New Jersey?
Young players like Brink, Foerster, Cates and Tippett are flourishing in Philadelphia. There is plenty of room for them and the Deslauriers line.
Watched every game of Deslauriers' Flyers career. This post is wild.
1. Deslauriers is not Miles Wood. Wood can skate and produce decent 4th line offense. He has nearly 30 more of them than Nic D in almost 200 fewer career games. Wood has posted 20+ points in 5 of his 6 full NHL seasons. Deslauriers has 0 in 9 years, and has only paced to do so once. Granted, Wood plays more minutes per night—but that's because he actually has utility and isn't a liability.
2. Kaprizov played 20 career games in the same lineup as Nic Deslauriers, they came at the end of Kirrill's 108 point season. During those 20 games, he had 29 points. He had 79 in the other 61 games, so that's a PPG difference of about .16. Are you seriously attributing that to a 4th liner he played 6 career minutes with? Not that he was a superstar in a stretch run to the playoffs—it was Nic D!
Deslauriers seems like a great dude and teammate, but he's just not a very effective NHL player. If the Flyers didn't have anyone else to play there—like now, with Couturier hurt—then fine, but he draws the ire when the team is fully healthy and there's a guy like Frost in the press box and a guy like Laughton or Cates on the 2nd line.