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Best #3 center options?

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nuck

nuck

Registered User
Aug 18, 2005
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Assuming Kerfoot is gone and the club has his $3.5M in play who would be a realistic actual #3?

First some UFAs.

I don't think Getzlaf is as far over the hill as Jumbo turned out to be but he was not very good the last couple of years. To me he seems like a league minimum or $1M guy and you hope to get the Perry bounce back. They need more certainty than that.

Bonino and Stastny didn't produce in the playoffs.

Bozak has had a couple of playoff points and can at least pk but he seems like more of a dumpster dive solution like Getzlaf.

Cizikas loo0ks decent this playoff but last playoff and the last two regular seasons he was clearly a 4th line guy in spite of a $4M salary.

So is it a trade or nothing then? Which teams might be selling.? This playoff just cemented that 1 year rentals are flushed assets 9 out of 10 times. Never mind what assets it costs, what solution could be available?
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Optimally, Phillip Danault. Out of our price range though.

Might be best off taking on a reclamation project like Nolan Patrick and conditioning him to be a matchup 3C.
 
nuck said:
Assuming Kerfoot is gone and the club has his $3.5M in play who would be a realistic actual #3?

First some UFAs.

I don't think Getzlaf is as far over the hill as Jumbo turned out to be but he was not very good the last couple of years. To me he seems like a league minimum or $1M guy and you hope to get the Perry bounce back. They need more certainty than that.
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Getzlaf, like Thornton, wasn't even a good skater when he was young.

Thornton's last season in SJ was better than Getzlaf's recent season.

Bonino and Stastny didn't produce in the playoffs.
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Too slow.

Bozak has had a couple of playoff points and can at least pk but he seems like more of a dumpster dive solution like Getzlaf.
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I actually wouldn't mind Bozak as a cheap option. Not ideal, but might be passable.

Cizikas loo0ks decent this playoff but last playoff and the last two regular seasons he was clearly a 4th line guy in spite of a $4M salary.
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He never really "looks good", but he's ugly effective. Like Hyman, he's a non-stop motor guy who is very disruptive. He makes his linemates better just through sheer intensity.

He's my ideal pick.... but his style and age worries me a bit for how quickly he's gonna start to deteriorate.

So is it a trade or nothing then? Which teams might be selling.? This playoff just cemented that 1 year rentals are flushed assets 9 out of 10 times. Never mind what assets it costs, what solution could be available?
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Barclay Goodrow - ideally a winger, but he's good on draws
Mikael Granlund - a bit soft for my liking, but he's really good otherwise
Erik Haula - well-rounded, but not great
Brandon Sutter - injury prone, but excellent defensively
Alex Wennberg - super soft, special teams specialist
 
I think it depends on how Keefe and Dubas want to shape the team. If they are going with let’s needing depth scoring and need 3 lines to produce then the 3C could just be Spezza with Marner and Robertson in the wings.
Put Gally-AM-Willie as 1st line.
Soup-JT-Hyman on 2nd line

If they are going with top 6 and bottom 6, then put the HEM line as the 3rd line.
Have Gally-JT-Willie and Robertson-AM-Marner as the other line.
 
Mess said:
#1. Auston Matthews
#2. John Tavares
#3. William Nylander
#4. Casey Cizikas
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I like the top 3 centers, TO has all this money tied up in 4 players but only has the money on 2 lines, play the top 3 lines relatively equally as they can all make their wingers better which improves TO's depth.

I'd like to see Marner with Nylander in this configuration.
 
Matthews
Tavares
Kuraly
Jankowski

There are better #3/#4 Cs out there but we probably can't fit them in under the cap and ice a SC competitor.
 
Dreakmur said:
If those are our 4th line Cs, we're in good shape. I don't think either guy is 3rd line quality.
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You are right but if we have to throw Kerfoot @ 3.5m overboard, there won't be any better options at a lower cap hit after you find replacements for Hyman and the other holes in our bottom 6.
 
ToneDog said:
You are right but if we have to throw Kerfoot @ 3.5m overboard, there won't be any better options at a lower cap hit after you find replacements for Hyman and the other holes in our bottom 6.
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There are absolutely better options. It's tough to predict contracts, but I think most of them will come in lower than 3.5.

Casey Cizikas and Mikael Granlund likely get the most, but I'm not sure either gets more than 3.0.

Barclay Goodrow, Erik Haula, Brandon Sutter, and Alex Wennberg likely get closer to 2.0.

Kerfoot isn't going because we can't afford 3.5 at 3c. He's going because he's not a good enough 3C to get that money.
 
Dreakmur said:
There are absolutely better options. It's tough to predict contracts, but I think most of them will come in lower than 3.5.

Casey Cizikas and Mikael Granlund likely get the most, but I'm not sure either gets more than 3.0.

Barclay Goodrow, Erik Haula, Brandon Sutter, and Alex Wennberg likely get closer to 2.0.
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Goodrow definitely but as a winger. If you can get Goodrow, Wennberg and Haula/Kuraly at $6m or under, I am starting to like the look of the team. Man those players at those prices make Marner's AAV look so much worse. $11m can go a long way in a pandemic.
 
ToneDog said:
Goodrow definitely but as a winger. If you can get Goodrow, Wennberg and Haula/Kuraly at $6m or under, I am starting to like the look of the team.
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Wennberg is my least favourite of that group. Decent two-way guy, but so so so soft.

A bottom 6 of Goodrow-Haula-Mikheyev and Engvall-Kuraly-Spezza is pretty decent. I'd like to replace Mikheyev and Engvall with something like Josh Archibald and Andrew Cogliano.
 
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We need a guy who can PK and is god defensively 5v5. Granlund seems to be the best fit. If Foligno came back, he might be a good option there too.

Goodrow is a good option for this team, but he hasn't played much center.

Haula I think is a good last resort option.

No to Wennberg, Kuraly, Glendening, Stastny, Cizikas, Bozak, Bonino.
 
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Dreakmur said:
Wennberg is my least favourite of that group. Decent two-way guy, but so so so soft.

A bottom 6 of Goodrow-Haula-Mikheyev and Engvall-Kuraly-Spezza is pretty decent. I'd like to replace Mikheyev and Engvall with something like Josh Archibald and Andrew Cogliano.
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Maybe see if we can get Clifford back too, really give those bottom two lines the ability to bang and crash.
 
Dreakmur said:
Adding guys like Clifford and Martin don’t make a difference on their own. If we’re going to be a skilled offensive team, they’re out of place.
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Agreed. We have to get grittier throughout. We saw Simmonds physical play kind of tail off... because that's not the style we play. We need to add guys like Coleman, Goodrow, Cizikas, maybe Simmonds again, Ritchie etc around the edges if that's what we need (I think it is). Unfortunately one or two guys on their own doesn't change the team identity, and it doesn't work. We need to start adding players who are gritty and annoying. The edges cant be filled out with the Mikheyev & Engvall's of the world
 
I hope we pursue Cizikas as our 3C. Local guy that will get third line minutes instead of fourth line minutes. Might be a guy we can lure in. This is assuming of course that Kerfoot ends up in Seattle. Kerfoot really impressed me these past playoffs
 
ToneDog said:
You are right but if we have to throw Kerfoot @ 3.5m overboard, there won't be any better options at a lower cap hit after you find replacements for Hyman and the other holes in our bottom 6.
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It depends on how they allocate the cap. If Hymans contract demands are too high, you can shift the money earmarked for his raise (ie from Andersen walking and replacing him with a cheaper 1B) to the 3C position. They could probably find a way to spend up to 5 mil on the role if they wanted to.
 
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jaric1862 said:
We need a guy who can PK and is god defensively 5v5. Granlund seems to be the best fit. If Foligno came back, he might be a good option there too.

Goodrow is a good option for this team, but he hasn't played much center.

Haula I think is a good last resort option.

No to Wennberg, Kuraly, Glendening, Stastny, Cizikas, Bozak, Bonino.
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Exactly.

It’d be ludicrous to waste Nylander in a 3rd line.

Ty Bozak was a proven failure ten years ago - - now that he’s 35yrs old people want him to return as the #3C?

What an asinine idea that is. Why not pump the tire for Steve Sullivan to return as well?
 
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