That's my thinking as well. If the Caps go out and spend big to "fix" the 3rd line, I can't imagine they'd keep playing an XXX-ROR-Mangiapane line 10-12 minutes a night like they're doing right now. At that point do you just make the lines 1A-D and give them all even playing time? I guess it'd be a good problem to have, but it seems like an inefficient use of resources.
Absolutely not. His "hot" start this year is just him being along for the ride with Necas's hot start in a super sheltered role. Historically he hasn't produced despite getting sheltered minutes and PP time with pretty good linemates (most frequent in Carolina have been Necas, Teravainen, and Svechnikov) and no PK responsibilities, and he's signed at 4.82M through 2030. He's not a "square peg, round hole" guy, he's been given every opportunity to succeed by the Canes and he just hasn't. Worst thing we could do is bail them out of that albatross of a contract.
| Line | GP | 5 on 5 TOI | 5 on 5 TOI/g |
| McMichael-PLD-Wilson | 14 | 139:04 | 9:56 |
| Duhaime-Dowd-Raddysh | 14 | 136:34 | 9:45 |
| Ovie-Strome-Protas | 13 | 118:37 | 9:07 |
| Vrana/Milano-Lapierre/Sgarbossa-Mangiapane | 13 | 92:27 | 7:07 |
Bigger, stronger and better at faceoffs/PK, tho. That's a fine trade-off since it's not like Lapierre has been using his speed to his advantage that often. Sgarbossa has been out-playing him so 3C was the obvious weakness if they were serious about competing. Maybe not their last move, though. Once Milano is ready to return I could see him joining Lapierre in Hershey (assuming he clears waivers).
amazing what happens when kuznetsov and oshie are removed from this team; its saving wilson's career
Then why are they keeping him in Washington if they aren't planning on playing him at wing? He's waiver eligible, so if he were literally only going to play in the case of injury, they could send him down in the meantime.
I don’t think he needs games. And i don’t think they want to develop him as anything other than a center. So he hangs around an NHL environment, trains, films, etc. but at any moment when someone goes down he could be in. so you keep him here.
I remember some freaking out about his pre-preseason injury (he missed like the first day of camp or something). Hilarious in retrospect.
russianmachineneverbreaks.com
Would you mind sharing what the GAR and xGAR looks like for our old/returning friend Mr. Eller?
He just seems like a top 6 or "bust" kind of guy. Not that he'll actually bust out, just be underwhelming, but it's like the lights come on for him when he's being asked to wheel around out there creating what he can and they dim a lot when he takes on these lower roles.
AM34's been out, not sure if he's back in tonight
He needs to earn that, though, and it's not like his current role hasn't been super insulated. If he can't show much of a spark in easy minutes he doesn't deserve better linemates. Being outplayed by Sgarbossa isn't a great look. I don't think his struggle are on anything more than him. It's not linemates, it's not the role, it's not the staff. He showed up expecting it to be easy it seems. Who knows what the deal is but I'm confident the staff will make the right call with him.
