Player Discussion: Anthony Cirelli

[TheDaysOf 04]

I don’t think that came out how he meant it.

 

[Stammertime91]

I don’t think that came out how he meant it.

Feel like Cooper is just trolling now. This and the comments about the others compared to the 3rd line... lol.

Cooper tomorrow:

"Man, what can you say about Riley Nash? The guy is a gem. We always knew he was Steven Stamkos without the shot."

 

[Five Alarm Fire]

 

[RussianGuyovich]

I’m going to give cirelli a break since he’s absolutely shutting everyone down. But killorn will get no such quarter.

 

[2020 Cup Champions]

I’m going to give cirelli a break since he’s absolutely shutting everyone down. But killorn will get no such quarter.

The ice shuts him down

 

[Stammertime91]

Been an offensive black hole all playoff. Very disappointing.

 

[LightningStrikes]

Two assists including one on the GWG in his first game back. Not bad!

 

[Stammertime91]

2g and 3a in his last 15 games.

Lol.

 

[Zwui21]

I definitely wouldn't be opposed to ship him out this offseason.
We are about to pay him as a 2C, while his offensive production and capability to produce in the Ozone is bottom 6-like.

Not good enough, especially with the salary cap increasing so little

 

[LeafLoyalist]

2g and 3a in his last 15 games.

Lol.

Checking stats....Surprising you wouldn't post about his 9 pts in 9 games in February, where he went 6 pts in 3 games against Col/Dal/Col, I guess it doesn't fit your narrative. Or the back to back games against NJ, 2 SHG. Or starting with 7 pts in 7 games when he returned from shoulder surgery and turned things around from your teams slow start this year. Has he been consistent with offense, no, but he's always played a strong defensive game. It's unfortunate no one can see his value beyond any offensive numbers, especially when he has little to no PP time, and averaging over 2 mins in PK time, and playing against the best offensive players in the game. Not to mention not having an offseason due to rehab from shoulder surgery, hard to know the impact a major surgery will have on a player, especially when it takes away from an off season on strength and conditioning, and then having to come in to the season after 30 games. Your team has obviously struggled the past few weeks, which impacts every player.

 

[Stammertime91]

Checking stats....Surprising you wouldn't post about his 9 pts in 9 games in February, where he went 6 pts in 3 games against Col/Dal/Col, I guess it doesn't fit your narrative. Or the back to back games against NJ, 2 SHG. Or starting with 7 pts in 7 games when he returned from shoulder surgery and turned things around from your teams slow start this year. Has he been consistent with offense, no, but he's always played a strong defensive game. It's unfortunate no one can see his value beyond any offensive numbers, especially when he has little to no PP time, and averaging over 2 mins in PK time, and playing against the best offensive players in the game. Not to mention not having an offseason due to rehab from shoulder surgery, hard to know the impact a major surgery will have on a player, especially when it takes away from an off season on strength and conditioning, and then having to come in to the season after 30 games. Your team has obviously struggled the past few weeks, which impacts every player.

"My narrative"... lol. If I was going to include anything past 15 games I'd probably just include his entire stat line.

He's just under 0.5 PPG which is on par for him but not where we need him going forward as our 2C. It just isn't good enough for this team when he's part of the transition from the old guard moving forward. He doesn't have the offensive side to his game that we desperately need on our second line.

But thank you, leaf fan, for giving your input on a sub you don't belong to. Oh wait, this HF, where everything is about you and your team. Silly me.

 

[flying squirrel]

Cirelli helps this team and I'm confused about all the grief some give our players. Not many players do everything great, and most teams are made up of specilists meant to fill certain roles. Just because a player isnt scoring a million goals, that doesn't mean they're not contributing. Cirelli plays an important role on this team very well and his effort sure isn't a problem. If Lightnign have success these playoffs, Cirelli will be a part of that...

 

[aylib]

Cirelli is a heck of a player, great at what he does. He will never be a scorer, but is very valuable nevertheless. He seems to anchor the PK, gets shutdown assignments in PO, is always hustling.

 

[Five Alarm Fire]

Cirelli helps this team and I'm confused about all the grief some give our players. Not many players do everything great, and most teams are made up of specilists meant to fill certain roles. Just because a player isnt scoring a million goals, that doesn't mean they're not contributing. Cirelli plays an important role on this team very well and his effort sure isn't a problem. If Lightnign have success these playoffs, Cirelli will be a part of that...

It's a tradition on here to rag on a forward who goes cold offensively. Plenty of cases have bounced back and been productive later.

Stamkos
Killorn
Palat
Gourde
Johnson

Mind you, you also have guys like Filppula, Callahan, and Purcell who never redeemed themselves. I personally see Cirelli turning the tide on here, but I agree it's gotten quite nasty on here lately.

 

[Stammertime91]

It's a tradition on here to rag on a forward who goes cold offensively. Plenty of cases have bounced back and been productive later.

Stamkos
Killorn
Palat
Gourde
Johnson

Mind you, you also have guys like Filppula, Callahan, and Purcell who never redeemed themselves. I personally see Cirelli turning the tide on here, but I agree it's gotten quite nasty on here lately.

My take is that he's great as a 3C but as a 2C, not so much. Especially the make up of this team and trouble scoring on the second line that has haunted us in the past. The back to back runs had Cirelli as a joint 2C or 3C however you look at it, with Gourde. Their TOI was very similar. Cirelli is a great 3C, a meh 2C. In that role, he hinders our offense. I wouldn't have an issue at all if Cooper had him as our 3rd line center but he plays him out of his role and that's not going to bode well with a 40-50pt 2C at 6M the next several years. That's my issue. I know how useful he is defensively but you don't pay 3Cs 6M a year... that's our conundrum.

 

[JoVel]

my hockey knowledge on which is extremely high. It is so high, you would feel such shame

Right calm down a bit there Matt Watson.

 

[Five Alarm Fire]

My take is that he's great as a 3C but as a 2C, not so much. Especially the make up of this team and trouble scoring on the second line that has haunted us in the past. The back to back runs had Cirelli as a joint 2C or 3C however you look at it, with Gourde. Their TOI was very similar. Cirelli is a great 3C, a meh 2C. In that role, he hinders our offense. I wouldn't have an issue at all if Cooper had him as our 3rd line center but he plays him out of his role and that's not going to bode well with a 40-50pt 2C at 6M the next several years. That's my issue. I know how useful he is defensively but you don't pay 3Cs 6M a year... that's our conundrum.

I would say he's slightly overpaid, compared to what a guy like Danault earned on the open market ($5.5M) and the amount of UFA years we bought. As you mentioned, the value comes from his defensive play, and that's maximized playing him against the tough matchups. That's going to naturally result in a lot of minutes eaten, regardless of what label you want to throw on him. We won two cups having him play that role, even if we were frustrated with the lack of offense his line generated both runs.

It is what it is. He leaves a lot to be desired offensively but I do wonder about how our series of past would have gone without him. Matthews, Barkov, and Zibenejad all had issues 5v5. MacKinnon was still generating a lot of chances but he was visibily frustrated many times in the final. I don't think there are a lot of players who can manage that well, let alone with two bum shoulders.

 

[NatoGhost]

The main issue with Cirelli is how much he is getting paid on his new contract. We like the player and recognize what he brings to the team but it's still pricey for a mostly defensive forward. He's an ideal 3rd line defensive forward IMO.

 

[Sky04]

If your 2C for the next 8 years can't produce more than 40~ points a season you're in trouble. If your 3C costs 6.25M you're in trouble. See the problem?

 

[JTBF81]

Oh well, Tampa doesn't have the cap space for a better 2C, nor is any team trading Tampa one with the assets the Bolts have. Cirelli may be a little overpaid, but his role with the team is not easily replaced. He's a streaky offensive player with Selke level defensive ability. Tampa's offense has not suffered these past few seasons with his ~45 points per season average, and he's certainly capable of being a 50+ point a year player moving ahead. He's maybe 750k overpaid, tops, so it's not as though his contract is going to be crippling Tampa from signing some big name ufa or even having the space to re-sign Killorn(neither of which were ever going to happen). No team is going to offer Tampa a better 2C or top 6 winger for him, and the team isn't moving him for a mid to.late 1st+a prospect, as magic beans aren't what they need at this point.

 

[LightningStrikes]

Ship him to Vancouver for Bozo Miller (Arizona retains 50%). Problem solved.

 

[LTIR Trickery]

If your 2C for the next 8 years can't produce more than 40~ points a season you're in trouble. If your 3C costs 6.25M you're in trouble. See the problem?

Not at all

 

[Byrddog]

My take is that he's great as a 3C but as a 2C, not so much. Especially the make up of this team and trouble scoring on the second line that has haunted us in the past. The back to back runs had Cirelli as a joint 2C or 3C however you look at it, with Gourde. Their TOI was very similar. Cirelli is a great 3C, a meh 2C. In that role, he hinders our offense. I wouldn't have an issue at all if Cooper had him as our 3rd line center but he plays him out of his role and that's not going to bode well with a 40-50pt 2C at 6M the next several years. That's my issue. I know how useful he is defensively but you don't pay 3Cs 6M a year... that's our conundrum.

This exactly. And it is quite possible we end up with the Tyler Johnson scenario again. At 6 mil there are not many teams out there willing to take that on as a shutdown center. That’s what he is. He should be on the 3rd line and not at 6mil per.

 

[DFC]

This exactly. And it is quite possible we end up with the Tyler Johnson scenario again. At 6 mil there are not many teams out there willing to take that on as a shutdown center. That’s what he is. He should be on the 3rd line and not at 6mil per.

At the same time, it's not like he's "just" shutdown center. He's around a half point per game while being one of the best defensive forwards in the league. While 6.5 is a bit high, if he were a 60 point player I don't think we would have gotten him for that. I think our expectations on Cirelli were set a little bit high because of how much he scored when he first came into the league, and we thought we would see improvement over time. He's still pretty much the same player offensively as he was on Day 1.

I do think we can be a bit hard on him. I think he was one of the most important players during last year's cup run, despite his scoring woes. He nullified the biggest offensive threat on the other team for the better part of three series, and did a good job against Nathan MacKinnon without any shoulders to work with.

The other thing is we got really used to "hometown discounts" on star players, and those just don't seem to be happening anymore. Cirelli would easily have fetched $6.5m on the open market -- probably more. So I mean, Cirelli can be a bit overpaid, but still a valuable member of the team.

What's odd is we seem to get the most out of him offensively when we stop depending on it. To me it seems better for both his offense and the team's defense if we use him as a 3rd line shutdown center.

 

[Stammertime91]

At the same time, it's not like he's "just" shutdown center. He's around a half point per game while being one of the best defensive forwards in the league. While 6.5 is a bit high, if he were a 60 point player I don't think we would have gotten him for that. I think our expectations on Cirelli were set a little bit high because of how much he scored when he first came into the league, and we thought we would see improvement over time. He's still pretty much the same player offensively as he was on Day 1.

I do think we can be a bit hard on him. I think he was one of the most important players during last year's cup run, despite his scoring woes. He nullified the biggest offensive threat on the other team for the better part of three series, and did a good job against Nathan MacKinnon without any shoulders to work with.

The other thing is we got really used to "hometown discounts" on star players, and those just don't seem to be happening anymore. Cirelli would easily have fetched $6.5m on the open market -- probably more. So I mean, Cirelli can be a bit overpaid, but still a valuable member of the team.

What's odd is we seem to get the most out of him offensively when we stop depending on it. To me it seems better for both his offense and the team's defense if we use him as a 3rd line shutdown center.

It would be so much easier if Coop separated him from Stamkos and put Paul there. Let the roles stay the same, just get the right personnel together.