You play to win the games. Zack Werenski and Sean Monahan (etc) want to win games.
Jiricek isn’t an NHL player. What he is in the future shouldn’t have ANY effect on him playing in the NHL right now. I’ve been vocal on my opinion on him. Should be the teams #1 trade bait for an upgrade of some sort.
While Sillinger looks better than what he did before, which to be clear was terrible, also IMO deserves to be a 4th line player or sitting games regularly. Pyyhtia is someone who absolutely deserves to be playing higher in the lineup and more minutes than Sillinger. He’s NOT a 2nd line center, or player.
JVR is somebody who should be getting more games than he is getting, over guys like Sillinger and Kuraly, and IMO also LeBanc and ZAR. He has better goal scoring ability around the net and just as good of a set up game than all these guys.
When does Mateychuk watch start?? Like JVR’s added offensive impact, other than Mateychuk being more than adequate as a defender, he was literally 1 of the most offensively impactful players during the preseason.
The teams absolutely misses Gaudreau from an on ice standpoint. KJ can’t come back soon enough. Voronkov is getting his legs back and looking better each game. Would like to see him at C and on the top PP unit, and him with Fantill would be nice.
Fantilli needs to slow EVERYTHING down. Problem is, I’m not sure he can. It’s hard to remember how young he is, but, sometimes I don’t think age is necessarily the issue with him. He’s definitely better at wing, at least for now.
I still keep Chinakhov/Marchenko split up 5 on 5. Until Johnson come back, at least.
Will be interested in watching Fabbro. Other than Jiricek, I’m also pretty much over Harris. JJ is a better option. Which says enough in itself.
Mateychuk can’t get her soon enough. Severson is a better partner for Werenski than Provorov, who we should be looking to move as soon as possible, for the simple reason that Mateychuk is the same exact style of player.