if you want a guess for production for fantasy reasons.. here is my take.. both could play with each other on a line or with legwand, hornqvist, bourque, spaling, halischuk
This should be the year for Wilson to get big minutes. His time has come to make it or break it. I think Wilson is great offensively but Trotz has his confidence down, way down. He'll either succeed here or get traded and become a star somewhere else.
Wilson is hot out of the gate, starts to falter a bit, Trotz calls him out in the Tennessean, Wilson starts getting into penalty trouble, rumors swirl on the np.com forums of a locker room war brewing between Wilson and Trotz, Wilson leaves in the offseason and signs a 6 year deal with Philadelphia. He starts putting up 30 goals per season.
This is just my prediction. Sincerely,
Scott Hartnell.
I loved the way Smith and Wilson fed off eachother last year. Stick either Horns or Hustle on that line and I think they can all have career years. That's the fanatic in me though, Wilson could easily find himself in the doghouse once again.
Would love that. Is he a good enough faceoff guy to compete with top Cs?
That's a good question. Out of 393 faceoffs taken last year he had a 44% success rate. Now that doesn't look particularly good, but he's got a teammate who's one of the best in the business (Gaustad). I'm sure he could pick up a few tricks, while getting generally stronger, and boost that up to atleast 50%.
We're actually going to a new weird system. We're going to play 3 defensemen and 2 centers at once. Poile is still scouring the market for a few more 2 way centers and his plan will be complete.
On the radio yesterday it sounded like Trotz has dubbed Smith the top line center this year.
Quote:
Originally Posted by glenngineer
We're actually going to a new weird system. We're going to play 3 defensemen and 2 centers at once. Poile is still scouring the market for a few more 2 way centers and his plan will be complete.
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I like Smith's game much better than Wilson's. That stretch last year to me showed that he had much more zip than Wilson...and I think Smith is good for 50 pts this season playing on the wing in the top 6.
I like Smith's game much better than Wilson's. That stretch last year to me showed that he had much more zip than Wilson...and I think Smith is good for 50 pts this season playing on the wing in the top 6.
I know he was a rookie, but Smith showed last season that his confidence is fragile. He was great until December. After that missed net, there was weeks I forgot he was even on this team. Hopefully some experience gets him to forget the mistakes and keep up the good play.