Quote:
Originally Posted by 101st_fan
Let's see ... Wilson v Arnott.
Arnott is 35, concussion prone, missed 1/4 of each of the past two seasons with much of that time down the stretch. When healthy can score, spotty at the faceoff dot, not known for hustle, defense, or use of size.
Wilson turns 21 this season. Played much better after getting over his groin injury. More willing to use his body and fight along the boards. 50% at the dot last season in limited time. Biggest drawback ... lack of experience and it is unknown if he is ready to step in yet.
There's your "carebear" attitude .... Poile is taking a calculated risk that Wilson can handle top six responsibilities and center a scoring line. Where the opening up front is created by these deals is on the wing where Wilson played most of his time last season. To fill that gap we have another calculated set of risks .... Halischuk, Andersson, or SK ... unless Poile makes a pickup later this summer. If the team goes with Dumont, Sully, Hornqvist, and Erat as the top line wingers we have known commodities up front with the question becoming if Dumont can recover from his off season or not.
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Again the risk isn't in the goal scoring as much to me as it is defensively.
We're counting on a guy that has a huge heart but little talent to play 2nd pairing minutes for the first time in his career at the age of 35, this same guy has mostly been a 6th7th defenseman and was a healthy scratch throughout his career the same defenseman we picked up at age 30 and released later. This is our number 3 guy on defense right now.
We lost Hamhuis - 2M - Arnott - 4.5m and Ellis 2M - That's 9.5M savings - Are we asking too much to say spend some of that money to make us a better team, right now, we are not....