Will Sammy Walker be an NHL regular next season?
- Thread starter Digitalbooya
- Start date
DANOZ28
Registered User
i wouldn't mind a 4th line of duhaime / rossi or steele / walker they should be able to create something with their combined speed.
IMO, he was the best forward in Iowa till the AS break, after which he ran out of gas, which is pretty normal for rookies. He has above average NHL speed and skill, PP skills, a good hockey IQ, and is a RHS who can play C in a pinch. He isn't big- probably 5'10 1/2 or so, but is significantly taller than Petan and Rossi. He has one thing holding him back, a lack of heft and strength. He needs to put on 10 good lbs. at least so he is more effective in puck battles, and absorbing punishment. At 24yo, you wonder if he is capable of doing so. I also think that he could improve his endurance... I notice that he has a lot of very short shifts.
He also got injured (shoulder?) at the World's, which will delay his summer training.
I am a fan, but it's now or never for Walker. He has to get bigger and stronger, or he will never be a full time NHL'er. I can see him as a 3rd liner who contributes some offense, and stretches the ice. A line of Gaudreau, Foligno/Duhaime, and Walker might be interesting. Also, he and Rossi played together a lot... a kid line of Rossi, Walker, and Boldy would be really interesting, if Rossi gets his act together.
I don't think he is the best choice for the 4th line. Milne might the man for that job.
It's really a choice between Steel, Rossi, and Walker, isn't it...depends on whether they sign Reaves, or get another "heavy" bottom six forward.
Kap - Hart - Zucc
Boldy - JEE - MoJo
Foligno - Gaud - Walker
Duhaime - Dewar - Reaves/Heavy??
Rossi/Steel
He also got injured (shoulder?) at the World's, which will delay his summer training.
I am a fan, but it's now or never for Walker. He has to get bigger and stronger, or he will never be a full time NHL'er. I can see him as a 3rd liner who contributes some offense, and stretches the ice. A line of Gaudreau, Foligno/Duhaime, and Walker might be interesting. Also, he and Rossi played together a lot... a kid line of Rossi, Walker, and Boldy would be really interesting, if Rossi gets his act together.
I don't think he is the best choice for the 4th line. Milne might the man for that job.
It's really a choice between Steel, Rossi, and Walker, isn't it...depends on whether they sign Reaves, or get another "heavy" bottom six forward.
Kap - Hart - Zucc
Boldy - JEE - MoJo
Foligno - Gaud - Walker
Duhaime - Dewar - Reaves/Heavy??
Rossi/Steel
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83.5
Right now we are at $76.2M with 17/23 roster, which includes both Rossi and Faber. Leaves just a hair under $7.3M to sign Gus, Duhaime, Addison, Shaw (LTIR likely), and Steel. It's actually more manageable than I thought. Especially because Addison/Steel will likely be traded and replaced with ELC type players.
Minnewildsota
He who laughs last thinks slowest
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If we're at 7M, Gus maybe gets 3.5, Steel and Addison are gone but they're not technically counting towards that 76M right now anyway. That's 3 forwards and 1 defenseman for the last 3.5-3.7 right? Technically possible with four 900k players but about as tight as you can get. We might even see Beckman, Milne, Petan, Fogarty, maybe Simon Johansson or Daemon Hunt/Ryan O'Rourke?
Or maybe we trade Foligno/Middleton/Zuccarello. I mean that's a tight squeeze.
Dr Jan Itor
Registered User
Dickie Dunn
Registered User
Agree, Foligno gets too much credit for not much impact anymore.
To answer the question, yes. 50% earns it, 50% not much alternative.
To answer the question, yes. 50% earns it, 50% not much alternative.
That's with a full 23 man roster. I believe we rocked a 21-22 man roster for a large portion of this year to save cap space up for the deadline.
Milne really intrigues me. I thought he got better as the season went on. If Simon Johansson plays for the NHL team, he's either vastly improved or things have gone horribly wrong for the NHL squad. I don't see Petan or Fogarty as anything other than 13th forwards/callups.
Beckman should have a decent chance of making the squad. We could make an interesting forward group out of what we have:
Kap-Rossi-Zucc
Boldy-Ek Daddy-Johansson
Beckman-Hartman-Walker
Duhaime-Dewar-Gaudreau
I keep coming back to we can't run Hartman at 1C again and expect different results. They need to try Rossi there for at least 10-20 games. We also need to be prepared that Zucc will take another step back.
Walker has 2 seasons (51 games) of waivers exemption left. He'll be riding the injury callup bus for when winger gets hurt.
Barring any trades, UFA signings, and just re-signing the RFAs; this is the healthy FWD group:
Kap/Hartman/Zucc
MarJo/JEE/Boldy
Foligno/Freddy G/Duhaime
Shaw/Dewar
For that last spot I see it as a compete toss up between 4 prospects:
Top-9 center: Rossi (moves Hartman or Freddy G to wing), could also be tried as a winger.
Top-6 wing: Walker (he needs to add mass)
Bottom-6 wing: Beckman (energy and a bigger body that the rest)
4th line wing: Milne (long shot, but he's my pick to impress in camp similar to Shaw last year)
Barring any trades, UFA signings, and just re-signing the RFAs; this is the healthy FWD group:
Kap/Hartman/Zucc
MarJo/JEE/Boldy
Foligno/Freddy G/Duhaime
Shaw/Dewar
For that last spot I see it as a compete toss up between 4 prospects:
Top-9 center: Rossi (moves Hartman or Freddy G to wing), could also be tried as a winger.
Top-6 wing: Walker (he needs to add mass)
Bottom-6 wing: Beckman (energy and a bigger body that the rest)
4th line wing: Milne (long shot, but he's my pick to impress in camp similar to Shaw last year)
- Dec 10, 2012
- 39,649
- 18,066
I could have miscounted but when I count roster positions we need to fill I usually do 13F. 7D and 2G, for 22 total.
Kaprizov-Rossi-Zuccarello = 15,863,333
Boldy-Ek-Johansson = 14,250,000
Foligno-Gaudreau-Hartman = 6,900,000
X-Dewar-X = 800,000+
X = ?
Brodin-Faber = 6,925,000
Middleton-Spurgeon = 10,025,000
Merrill-X = 1,200,000+
Goligoski = 2,000,000
Gus (presumably) = 3,500,000
Fleury = 3,500,000
Dead cap = 14,743,588
Total = 79,706,921
Cap = 83,500,000
Cap space remaining = 3,793,079 for four roster spots
3,793,079
- 861,667 (Milne)
- 894,167 (Beckman)
- 855,000 (Walker)
---------------------------
= 1,182,245 for a bottom pair/7D without any other moves
So we either have to carry those young guys on the roster full time and play them full time, or we need to clear quite a bit of cap space if we want to upgrade anywhere. You couldn't even sign another Merrill at 1.2M. You could barely give a fourth liner 1M without making a move.
To me, Zuccarello, Foligno, Middleton, Goligoski and Fleury are the expendable guys if you're looking to upgrade anywhere.
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Good point on the bolded.
I think Milne has a future as an energy guy in the NHL. Like his wheels, has a few moves, and while he isn't big, he looks pretty solid, or at least solid enough for the NHL. I think he might need another year in the AHL, but he really improved during the course of the year.
Beckman looks every bit of 6'1" out there, but he needs to put on some lbs. He is not strong, even at the AHL level, and is a terrible fighter. Sammy Walker, in his one and only fight, knocked his guy down in a decisive decision, though it was against a guy Shaw also KO'ed. I also think that Walker is faster, has better skills, and has a higher hockey IQ. Beckman might have a better shot.... that's about it. The other thing he has going for him over Walker is that he is 2 years younger, so there's still hope. He and Walker both need to fill out.
I like Walker's chances more because the others either are ready, or aren't suited to play on the team. Rossi is the big question mark... I don't see him as anything but a C, either.
Trouble is, Rossi wasn't even close to being an effective top 6 C, or even a NHL C, in his brief times up here. Just handing him the #1C spot .... yikes. I think i'd rather JEE moves up, and Rossi plays with Boldy, a guy he's played with before, and MoJo, a guy who knows how to play and who's speed will open things up for the line.
Once that fails we can move him down to the 3rd line, then back to Iowa.
I'd be fine with Ek Daddy on the top line and Rossi on the second line. Just something that's actually given a legit chance for more than 5-10 games.Trouble is, Rossi wasn't even close to being an effective top 6 C, or even a NHL C, in his brief times up here. Just handing him the #1C spot .... yikes. I think i'd rather JEE moves up, and Rossi plays with Boldy, a guy he's played with before, and MoJo, a guy who knows how to play and who's speed will open things up for the line.
Once that fails we can move him down to the 3rd line, then back to Iowa.
BagHead
Registered User
If he comes into the pre-season in NHL-pro shape (fitness level specifically), yes, I think he sticks on the NHL roster. Could make one of the other players in the bottom 6 expendable, or maybe he just gets lots of call up time.
I don't like the idea of a MarJo/Rossi/Boldy line. Lines with MarJo have been junk if he's the 2nd best FWD on the line. It was like that when he was on a line with Fiala a couple years ago, and then again last year in the Playoffs (no JEE).
I'd like to see a Rossi/Freddy G/Walker line tried out in preseason. Not just because I don't see Rossi as a NHL center (too small and slow). It's a developmental thing I've said with most young centers so they have a chance to get acclimated to the NHL game without all the responsibility.
Johansson has been hovering around .3-.5ppg for years. If Rossi can’t get at least .3 next to Boldy full time, then he’s a bust.
Boldy only had 28p 5v5 last season (81 games); that is a .346 ppg rate. 16 of those points came in the last 20 games of the season. 12p in 61 games is bad. 16p in 20 games is really good, 1p in 6 Playoff games is bad.
I don't see Rossi getting 3v3 time, being on PP1 (the working PP unit). or being on the ice in EN situations to boost his stats next season; so I just used 5v5 stats.
Boldy had a rotating cast of players that weren’t NHL quality last, including Rossi. I’m sure the 16 points in the last 20 games has something to do with acquiring Johansson and bumping Eriksson Ek up to that line. The fact that those three worked so well together was my original reasoning to try Rossi on the 1st line. I hope that another year of training has helped Rossi fulfill more of his potential.
Without JEE he and MarJo were trash in the Playoffs. Boldy was on a line with one of JEE, Freddy G, or Hartman all season. He also picked up a decent amount of time with Kap/Zucc thoughout the season.
Boldy had 1 good month with a line, for whatever reason, clicked. Take away any part of that line and the line he on was a nothing burger. He had 15-20 games with JEE as his center before MarJo came in and it wasn't good. He had the Playoffs without JEE and and it wasn't good.
I just don't see how Rossi can get to .3-.5 ppg attached to Boldy's hip when Boldy himself wasn't doing that last year without both of MarJo and JEE (5v5, again I don't see Rossi getting the bonus points from non-5v5 play). I'm low on Rossi as everyone on here knows, but that just seems like a completely unrealistic standard to me.
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