Chara, Alzner, Schultz, and the other players blocking younger players from progressing were fringe NHLers. at the time. Eller is approaching that fringe NHLer status as well, if last season wasn't an anomaly. Statistically Siegenthaler, TVR, and Schmidt were not fringe NHLers. The coaches opted to make the team worse off in favor of stability or some such claptrap, rather than just icing better players. The team is plenty stable now. They have been stably getting bounced in unceremonious fashion in round 1. Perhaps a little "instability" is needed, unless we're happy with Round 1 exits being the ceiling for this team?
Yes, it's up to the coaches to make the right decisions. I am not fully confident they will do so, as evidenced by past poor choices when faced with similar decisions. I agree TVR playing over Chara or Schultz in 2021 against Boston wasn't the difference between winning and losing, but maybe there will be a close 7 game series in the future where a seemingly small edge is the difference between winning and losing. How many times are games and series seemingly coin flips?
You say things like this like it really happened in some other statistics-universe or something, and you know how it went there.
There might also be a close 7 game series where a guy like Chara comes out big, finds that greatness he once possessed for one last game and wins it alone. Now as we are talking what ifs.
Legendary quote ”hockey is a momentum game”. It can make a big difference in the backbone of your teams confidence, whether you sit next to a rookie or soon to be hoffer in the locker room. Or it might not, if the rookie has played himself there and forced the Chara or Alzner out of his way. Schmidt was refreshing, Siegs was fine, but you are making it sound like they were hyper-studs at the time. They would not have made the difference.
And its not like we didnt think Schmidt was breaking out next year. They had a path him and they were following it, and it was going just as planned. We didnt just throw him out. We lost him in expansion draft. And Siege we lost because he wanted out for a bigger role. They had a path for him aswell, but he didnt have the patience to wait for it. And im happy it worked out for him, but he isnt quite as superstar as people here keep singing songs. Im not sure if he is all so much better than TVR, maybe by some margin, but Trevor is happy here and knows his spot. Not sure what role Siegs would play today if he stayed as a Cap.
I like CMM and with patience he might have a long and good run with the Caps and will be solid middle-six player if things go right for him. But many here maybe have a bit of a rush and want to desperately to overvalue him because of our thin prospect pool. He is most likely not going to be an all star, and thats fine. We dont have much of a reason to rush him to a certain spot, as long as we have competition.
He will force his way into that spot, or not, but in the big picture it likely changes from little to nothing if this isnt the year that CMM breaks out. The scope and developement plan has been on 23/24 from the start, when Ellers contract runs out, and CMM hasnt yet shown a big enough reason to not keep on that route. Id be more than happy if he does though!
