I agree on most of this but I disagree on Benning. I think he is a solid defenceman who put up good point totals and is a great 3rd pairing d-man but is being overplayed on the Sharks as a 2nd pair defender. Solid role player IMO and a good pick up for the Sharks who has a bargain contract.
I agree. It's hard to complain about a guy on a 1.25 million dollar contract unless he's literally forgetting who he plays for and is just taking slappers on his own net.
Curious if Grier attaches him to someone this offseason in a deal. I know 3 more years is a lot for a purely bottom pairing guy, but for $1.25M locked in and the fact that he's righ-handed, I feel like he could be a nice sweetener to upgrade the return for someone like Karlsson or Barabanov. Don't think he holds a ton of value on his own, but could be the difference between a good and great return while not having much effect on the org moving forward given where we're at in our rebuild.
Makiniemi seems to be the next guy in line for the #2G spot but Grier might sign a vet to shelter him in the A since he didn't play much last year due to injury.
I think Bar gets traded at the draft personally. I also think EK is gone before the season. No sense in going all in on FA, but if we do it's gonna be the same style of buy-low blue collar guys like Connor Brown (who's still recovering from an ACL), or, hell, even a Garnett Hathaway.
I can see us bringing back Dell and giving Niemi the lion's share of the work with the 'Cuda.
Hate those albatross contracts that can be fully buried in the minors if necessary.
Benning is awful but let's not get carried away
There were 3 D-Men worse than Benning off that 2011-12 team along (White, Vandermeer, and Murray). Add in the second time around Brad Stuart and Scott Hannan as well from the D-Men of the last 10 years worse than Benning train.
Playing Ek on the first line of a dumpster fire lineup doesn't really do much except put a target on his back.
Detroit did this with Raymond and it seems to have worked out fine. It’s time to let Eklund sink or swim IMO.
I don't really see a better place to play him. I'd rather him be in a position to be able to use his skill than being stuck with guys like Sturm or Kunin
So he won't be reaching or giving him the opportunity to reach his potential until he is 27 and a UFA? Seems like a waste.
There's far more talent on that Wings team then we're gonna have this year. I don't mind playing him, but I'd feel more comfortable with him playing less minutes in a second line role.
Next year's team is gonna make this year's team look like an all-star squad. No Timo, potentially no EK, a year older Couture and potentially no Barabanov either.
Talking about the 2021-22 Wings when Raymond was a rookie. Larkin and Bertuzzi aren’t much better than Hertl and Couture. Raymond was their next highest scoring forward followed by Sam Gagner, Pius Suter and Robby Fabbri. You think Barabanov, Labanc and Kunin/Zetterlund isn’t comparable to that? Not to mention Karlsson could easily still be here too.
I think next year Barb and Labanc aren't on the team nor will Karlsson be (IMO). I also think Detroit having Seider and Hronek to help take some of the load off from the backend made a huge difference as well. I fully expect next year to be the worst season in the history of the Sharks.
Okay so Eklund is supposed to spend another year on the Barracuda? Or on the third line with Nico Sturm? I don’t understand what the superior option is here.
Still does not mean you hinder your best prospects development by playing him with even more garbage then what would be on the first line. I would rather Eklund playing with couture/hertl then whatever crap is going to be on a 3rd line.
I know he is good with the puck on his stick, but is Eklund a possession player and forechecker? Someone that can control play for Couture
I'd give him a mid-season call-up tbh. It's not like he's the only guy from his draft class being slowly brought up. Guenther's played 33 games, Edvinsson 9, Hughes 2, Clarke 9, Boucher 0, Coronato 1. Hell, there are plenty of guys from the 20 draft who've played sparingly.
I think he can be. Frankly, we don't have any pure goal scoring options on this team. I'd still like to see him pack on more muscle.
