I'd be looking for a replacement for TK via trade. And hopefully we're adding a top 6 winger as well. Once Bennett gets a full time role, Dupuis can be bumped down with Sutter. And Cooke can walk in the summer.
Cooke digs for pucks, Beau finds Neal, Neal scores.
Just Do It
Neal and Cooke are in the wrong spots and Dangles is not a C.
As to whoever mentioned
Kunitz - Sutter - Dupuis
That's a line built to not score. None of those guys can generate offense on their own. Sutter isn't a bad C but he needs a legit goal scorer if the line is going to be a legit threat / if we're to avoid the other team stacking the deck against Line 1.
Since Dangles and Sutter have played together some already, the line that makes more sense is
Kunitz - Sid - Dupuis
Dangles - Sutter - Neal
I believe this could work OK in the short term. Between Dangles and Sutter, they should be able to find Neal a decent amount of the time / produce some points. Finally Disco's vision of an all NA team is coming to life. Get well soon, Geno! This team needs more Euro.
I'd be looking for a replacement for TK via trade. And hopefully we're adding a top 6 winger as well. Once Bennett gets a full time role, Dupuis can be bumped down with Sutter. And Cooke can walk in the summer.
Show me your 13 forwards then. You're talking about letting more guys leave than you are bringing in.
I understand this is the Hockey's Future forums but if a player is still productive and affordable, why are we letting him walk?
With someone more skilled, more consistent and tougher, respectively.
Saying things like "Kennedy will figure things out" is how we get bounced in Round 1.
That sounds eerily similar to "getting to our game".
Cooke is a shell of what he used to be, and he has serious miles on the odometer now. Kennedy needs to go, because he is no longer a value player for us. He's an anchor. And we don't need Adams with so many other similar types here. We should replace him with an enforcer.
Why would we hang onto these guys? Because they helped us win four seasons ago?
Who are we replacing Cooke, Kennedy & Adams with? If you promote from within you're not going to get half of the production of those guys. If you replace them in free agency you're gonna have to overpay for someone. If you make a trade, you're giving up assets.
Cooke is fine. Kennedy will probably figure things out. Despite his age Adams has been surprisingly serviceable this year. And what's more, I don't see any UFAs or prospects in the system that would do any better than them.
ummmm we already have players to repalce Adams they are Vitale & Jeffrey lol
i think we should keep one of Cooke and TK (honestly prob Cooke), resign Dupuis and hopefully a top 6 winger to push Dupuis down to the 3rd line
so lets just say for example our team looks like this
i really dont see any way all 3 of those guys are brought back, unless we get no one for the top 6, i just cant see them giving TK a raise and they shouldnt keep Adams
With someone more skilled, more consistent and tougher, respectively.
Oh of course.
Quote:
Saying things like "Kennedy will figure things out" is how we get bounced in Round 1.
That sounds eerily similar to "getting to our game".
Meanwhile, you're saying "lets replace players X, Y, Z with better players" without putting any thought into it beyond that. Heck, you haven't even named any players you'd replace them with.
Quote:
Cooke is a shell of what he used to be, and he has serious miles on the odometer now. Kennedy needs to go, because he is no longer a value player for us. He's an anchor. And we don't need Adams with so many other similar types here. We should replace him with an enforcer.
Cooke is coming off his best offensive season of his career. He still hits a ton, he's still a great PKer and he's good defensively. He's under $2 million. He's a perfect 3rd line winger.
Quote:
Why would we hang onto these guys? Because they helped us win four seasons ago?
Because, with the exception of Kennedy who has sucked this year, they're helping us win *now* and you're not going to replace them as easily as you seem to think.
Adams is already replaced once the team decides to let him go (Vitale and Jeffrey are both good replacements and whichever doesn't C the other can play LW).
Kennedy is the one who needs to go. He is nowhere close to earning his money and it's proven at this point he was basically riding Staal's coattails IMO.
Cooke should stay. No he's not the old "mean" Matt Cooke, but he's still a useful player in many areas. So really we only need to replace 1 guy: Kennedy. And that's not hard to do from within the system IMO. If we don't have some young guys capable of replacing Tyler Kennedy, we have much bigger problems in our system than only having one legit scoring F. And if we need sandpaper, that Farnhum guy sounds like just the ticket as long as he can skate well. How much are we going to save on that racket... $1.4M per? And we add some much needed toughness? Sign me up and don't let the door hit your ass on the way out TK.
Your Tic Tac Toe goal will forever be remembered but life is about change. Now go chest-snipe for a new and exciting team.
Last edited by Chancellor Vitale: 02-23-2013 at 08:57 AM.
I don't know how you're evaluating this first line right now, but they pass the eye test as well as any statistical test. They've been the 2nd best ES line in the league all year (behind Vanek-Hodgson-Pominville). IMO it would take adding a huge upgrade over Dupuis to make that line better, and that's even just "on paper." I'll take results every time.
I'm going based on this: Sid's line works because Sid. In the playoffs, when the checking is tighter, when the penalties are... not enforced, teams are going to blanket Sid. I don't believe that Kunitz/Dupuis are good enough to create/finish on their own consistently enough to either 1) make teams respect them or 2) punish teams for not respecting them.
Dupuis has been very good this year in both ends of the ice. But he is what he is when it comes to finishing. I think you need a true "#2", a sniper/finisher on that line.
The scary part is that I can actually logically justify lines like this in my head. Maybe that's just a defense mechanism. When I can justify lines like Neal-BB-Cooke, it's pretty hard to be surprised when Bylsma decides to get creative.
Lando - Sid - Dupers (this line would be sick - anything Kunitz can do Lando can do better)
Dangles - ROR - Neal (until Geno get's back)
Cooke - Sutter - Manchuk
We need more concussion cases on this team. What doesn't kill us makes us... dizzy.
I really hope we see Kunitz - Sid - Neal tomorrow. Let's be honest, with either Sid or Geno hurt we become a 1 line offense. Let's make that line the best it can be.
As far as a trade goes, I guess if Shero was at all interested in ROR, he's a bit more interested now. I still think it only happens if Shero thinks he'd be a good full-time wing long term.
I really hope we see Kunitz - Sid - Neal tomorrow. Let's be honest, with either Sid or Geno hurt we become a 1 line offense. Let's make that line the best it can be.
As far as a trade goes, I guess if Shero was at all interested in ROR, he's a bit more interested now. I still think it only happens if Shero thinks he'd be a good full-time wing long term.
I agree, but this just confirms that Sid is, in fact, not allowed to play with skill.
If the injury is serious enough (potentially season ending, let's say), would you see Shero taking a run @ ROR?
I don't think so, the fact that he wants 5 million a year should steer us away from him, we can't afford it with Geno and Tanger needing raises. Maybe if Kennedy and Niskanen are going the other way, but that's still a large sum of money to be handed out.
All blockbuster jokes aside, I see him doing something to acquire a skill C and skill W either way, because there's no guarntee of Malkin's health throughout the playoffs even if he comes back. This puts us in too precarious a situation, even going into next year.
IMO we're going to unload some key assets on D and maybe even a Kunitz type, in order to get a huge upgrade. Just a question of to which team(s). You go through 3 years of these serious injuries to star players and the only conclusion you can draw after losing 3 first round playoffs is, you need more stars. Fill the bottom 6 with less expensive, home-grown players... and load 'em up on the Top 6 for as many years as you can keep em. Just expect you might only have one star around for 2 or 3 years, then you have to go get another one. Such is life under the Cap.
let's just say, it'll add fuel to the fire...but we can't afford him...maybe trade for him and flip him to Anaheim in a deal for Perry?
But what do I know
I think it would be dumb for the pens to trade for any big rent a players for the short term if geno is out going into the playoffs. Were not a cup contender without geno.
