Post-Game Talk: The Greiss is Right | Pens - 1, Isles - 2

[SEALBound]

Fehr was playing mostly on a 4th line at the time. He prefers playing center and was a very solid 3rd line center last year with Washington. He's not going to put up more than 35 points though.

I'm not saying we couldn't use an upgrade, but it's not worth the cost. 20G 40P 3rd line centers cost 4-6MM these days.

I'll take a bottom 6 of

Wilson-Fehr-Bennett/Rust
Cullen-Sundqvist-Rust/Kuhn/whoever

Move Kunitz and Bones for cap space and whatever picks. Spend the money on a top 6 LW'er or swing a trade for one.

I can support this move. With the bottom 6 players we have I think you can run a 3A and 3B quite effectively.

I think you send out Kunitz for a pick and prospect and add that to Bonino and I think you can get a decent LW.

 

[Shady Machine]

I can support this move. With the bottom 6 players we have I think you can run a 3A and 3B quite effectively.

I think you send out Kunitz for a pick and prospect and add that to Bonino and I think you can get a decent LW.

Agreed.

You can either trade for a LW'er or acquire futures and use the cap space to sign someone.

There aren't a ton of attractive LW'ers, but there are a few I wouldn't mind depending on price.

Ladd, Boedker, Lucic, and McGinn are probably the 4 best. The first 3 will likely be overpaid. So on 2nd thought, we probably have to trade for that winger.

 

[WayneSid9987]

If they weren't idiots, they could survive without paying a ton of money in FA'y or giving up even more prime assets for a LW'er.

All you have to do is get a little creative:

You have Kessel, Horny, Hags, Fehr, Bones maybe Beau and maybe Sprong to work with.
All that without even including Kunitz or the WB guys.

Just go with that and stop trading away 1st round picks/top prospects.

 

[Shady Machine]

If they weren't idiots, they could survive without paying a ton of money in FA'y or giving up even more prime assets for a LW'er.

All you have to do is get a little creative:

You have Kessel, Horny, Hags, Fehr, Bones maybe Beau and maybe Sprong to work with.
All that without even including Kunitz or the WB guys.

Just go with that and stop trading away 1st round picks/top prospects.

Kessel, Hornqvist, Bennett, and Sprong are right wingers. Bones is a center and maybe left winger. Fehr is a center and right winger.

I think Sprong is the best to make the switch but he isn't going to be ready for top 6 duty on LW next year.

They need to go get a top 6 left winger.

 

[WayneSid9987]

Agreed.

You can either trade for a LW'er or acquire futures and use the cap space to sign someone.

There aren't a ton of attractive LW'ers, but there are a few I wouldn't mind depending on price.

Ladd, Boedker, Lucic, and McGinn are probably the 4 best. The first 3 will likely be overpaid. So on 2nd thought, we probably have to trade for that winger.

You forgot probably the best possible one in Eriksson.

McGinn also isn't good enough.
We need better than him.

 

[Shady Machine]

You forgot probably the best possible one in Eriksson.

McGinn also isn't good enough.
We need better than him.

Eriksson is listed as a RW'er so that's probably why I missed him. I agree McGinn isn't good enough for what we are ideally looking for.

 

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

I'd be interested in trying to get Honrqvist to move to LW over the summer and going hard after Okposo--assuming he's not fielding offers for absurd money/term, which is possible considering the FA market is always silly. I do think it's calmed down recently though.

 

[Shady Machine]

I'd be interested in trying to get Honrqvist to move to LW over the summer and going hard after Okposo--assuming he's not fielding offers for absurd money/term, which is possible considering the FA market is always silly. I do think it's calmed down recently though.

If Hornqvist fully bought in to playing LW, then maybe it could work. I just don't see him being adept at making plays on his back hand on the breakout and off the rush

Okposo would be nice but he's going to cost a boatload IMO.

Lucic, Okposo, Ladd are likely all going to go for 6+ on long term deals.

 

[mpp9]

Having five 7 million dollar players on the roster seems like it's not a winning formula.

We're better off picking up a guy under the radar. I would have been fine with Frolik or Pouliot opposite of Sid and PH. All Sid needs on a team with Malkin and Kessel playing behind him, is a guy who can at the very least know how to read him and get him the puck quickly. Smart players who can skate. And aren't washed up.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Idk, if we were to find another guy like Comeau for our top-6 and we were to ship off Kunitz, I'd be pretty happy with our forward group overall. I like Hagelin-Crosby-Hornqvist enough to not bother looking for a LW for that line, we just need a guy that fits well with Geno and Kessel. I think the lack of chemistry between Geno and Kessel could be overcome/reduced if the Pens would bring in another winger that had chemistry with Malkin.

 

[TheSniper26]

So you want him shooting shots from the outside on the PP? Yeah that's not going to lead to many goals. Playing the left is his spot but then he uses the whole left side roam up to the center point, sneak down the slot, etc.

That's nice but that's not really what's happening. The team doesn't seem interested in making him the guy who has the puck or dictates the play. They want a trigger man over there and Kessel isn't making those quick bang bang plays work at all. Yes, the right side keeps the puck to the outside but that might actually provide Kessel a little more time to actually get off his wrist shot. Keeping the puck to the outside and shooting across his body from the right side has served Kessel well at ES to this point in his career. Might be worth giving it the odd look on the 2nd PP unit.

And again, key words there are "odd look". I didn't say stick him there and never look back. Anything's worth trying. If I were the coach I'd be trying any number of different combinations. Sid at the point, Geno down low, Daley on the right... What's the harm? We disrupt a PP that's inconsistent at the best of times?

Or we could just keep doing the whole Sid/Geno/Letang tapping it back and forth to each other until Kessel flubs the eventual through-the-box pass thing over and over again...

 

[Pancakes]

Kessel hasn't been great as a trigger guy on the left side but he's actually been surprisingly good as a playmaker over there. He keeps trying that play where we send it over to him and then instead of shooting he fires a hard pass towards the net aimed at Hornqvist or Sid and we've buried a decent amount of those.

It seems to me the best strategy right now is let Malkin hammer one-timers from the right, let Letang occasionally let loose from the top, and when Kessel gets it he can either try a quick snapshot or fire a hard pass through the middle of the box for a tip.

We don't necessarily even need Phil to be hammering one-timers in as long as he's a passing threat over there. We just need him to be a threat that way teams don't overload on Malkin.

 

[mpp9]

Yeah. The coach needs to recognize Phil ain't a one time threat and make sure 71 knows he's the primary shot threat on the PP from here on out.

Phil's only use on the PP has been his passes to 87/72.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

Small sample size, but I thought Kessel had been getting better wood on those one-timers last game.