Speculation: 2023-24-25 Sharks Roster Discussion
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timorous me
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He's getting the Zetterlund/Eklund "young guy who needs a kick in the ass" treatment. If he starts the game well, he'll probably get more ice up the lineup. If he doesn't, he'll probably get scratched for "development" when Kostin is ready.
Because he's largely been invisible save for the occasional nice cross-ice pass and bad turnover. I think the team has sort of given up on his development for now and are just letting him play hockey. A lot of times in our GDTs some will talk about Will having a dominant game and then i'll go to the opponent GDT and they'll be like, "I didn't even know he was playing!".
BaileyMacTavish
Hockey lovin' wolf
I do. I think he's our future 2C and playing Will alongside Celebrini on line one will be an incredible combo.
Timo Time
73-9
If Smith is demoted please tell me f***ing Barclay Goodrow is not on that 1st line
BaileyMacTavish
Hockey lovin' wolf
He's 3rd line with Wennberg and Kunin.
Top line is the Lund line.
Eklund-Granlund-Zetterlund
Kovalenko-Celebrini-Toffoli
Goodrow-Wennberg-Kunin
Grundstrom-Sturm-Smith
Dellandrea-Kostin
Walman-Ceci
Ferraro-Liljegren
Thrun-Rutta
Vlasic-Mukhamadulin
Star Platinum
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I miss early season Granlund. I hope he gets back to that level soon.
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Hero hockey yesterday. Way too much trying to do it all himself. Sometimes it works when he's on, but definitely not last night. Fully agree with you.
Love the top six. Hate that 3rd line and think the 4th will play better than the 3rd. If Smith responds well which he's done before, he'll do well with Grundstrom and Sturm who both have been alright rather than awful in their shifts like Goodrow and Kunin tend to be when they're elevated in the lineup. They may want to consider scratching Ceci soon because it's been a bit rough even with the assist last night. I'd rather Mukhamadullin work out the kinks than scratch him if we're going to keep him up here.
weastern bias
worst team in the league
Granlund is clearly playing with an exacerbated head injury, he's had multiple cheap shots against go unpunished this season and each time he's looked like a different player out there, he was fighting the puck hard in the Colorado game
They keep going back to the Lund line despite the consistently terrible results. Of 219 lines combinations that have played at least 50 minutes together the Lund line is ranked 208 in xGoals%.
BaileyMacTavish
Hockey lovin' wolf
Celly4Celebrini
pray
- Jul 10, 2010
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its long been believed, but it also usually leads to some saying never confirmed just speculated
OverTheLine
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Smith played great hockey with Granlund, got injured, came back and was put with bums and subsequently struggled.
Goodrow has never shown anything resembling a justification for being put on the first line, but our young talent players are constantly being subjected to a farce of meritocracy that as far as I can tell does not seem to have worked at all. I generally like Wario so far but his handling of lineups has been suspect, especially with the youth vs vets. Smith should either be a top 6 player or out the lineup because he has no business playing on the fourth line; it’s not his role, not now nor will it ever be, and not only is he not going to learn anything useful that way developmentally, it’s a bad deployment of his skillset and wont contribute to winning games.
Goodrow has never shown anything resembling a justification for being put on the first line, but our young talent players are constantly being subjected to a farce of meritocracy that as far as I can tell does not seem to have worked at all. I generally like Wario so far but his handling of lineups has been suspect, especially with the youth vs vets. Smith should either be a top 6 player or out the lineup because he has no business playing on the fourth line; it’s not his role, not now nor will it ever be, and not only is he not going to learn anything useful that way developmentally, it’s a bad deployment of his skillset and wont contribute to winning games.
Jargon
Registered User
The way I see it is that Warsofsky sees the lines as having different jobs. The 4th line is chasing down pucks, playing simple and safe hockey, etc. He seems to like putting his young guys on that line when they’re struggling because — and this is just me guessing but I think it makes sense — he wants them to go out and not overthink, play simply, etc.
He GENERALLY moves that young guy up like a period into the game, so I wouldn’t worry too much about it. I expect the same to happen to Smith.
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Hodge
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The 4th line gets shifts immediately after PP and immediately after goals against. The obvious purpose is to get out there, play a hard shift, get possession, get the energy up, and set up the next line with either good game flow or an offensive face-off. This is not just a box of shame. I think @Jargon has it right. Play simple, responsible hockey, and if you can do that, you move back up the line up very quickly. Just like Eklund did, just like Zetts did, even though there was undue anger and panic about those decisions at the time.
wickedwitch
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It's hard to evaluate the move completely without knowing what Warso is thinking. If he's expecting Smith to put up good offensive numbers there, then that's an unfair standard; if he's expecting solid hockey, then that's totally reasonable.
I've said this before (and will probably have to say this again): long-term, Smith needs to play with other skilled players. I wouldn't want to see him go months and months without that. His offensive game is the type that will develop best with other skilled players. But for a few days or weeks, it's fine to put him with "unskilled" players as long as there's a purpose to it.
I've said this before (and will probably have to say this again): long-term, Smith needs to play with other skilled players. I wouldn't want to see him go months and months without that. His offensive game is the type that will develop best with other skilled players. But for a few days or weeks, it's fine to put him with "unskilled" players as long as there's a purpose to it.
Juxtaposer
Outro: Divina Comedia
Frankly I'd rather see Smith with Sturm and Grundstrom than Goodrow, so I'm not sure how much of a demotion this is unless they cut his minutes drastically too.
weastern bias
worst team in the league
"Offenseman" was better than this
timorous me
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It's also pretty insulting to a guy who just had a perfectly decent game on Thursday and, while he hasn't developed like we'd hoped, doesn't have a bad attitude and is trying to get better (and has mostly played this year with Rutta, whom others have struggled with as well).
LadyStanley
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