We're a quarter of the way through the season and our 4th line doesn't have a goal this year.
Drury, Stepan, Stastny. Yikes.... There's no offensive talent, no guys that are going to out hustle you, out check you, intimidate you, fight you. That 4th line is a gigantic blackhole of nothing. It's like they picked 3 randos to go out there and play hockey together.
Missing the days when we had the likes of McGinn & Foegele on our 4th line. They were guys that constantly out forechecked the opposition, they were high energy players, and had a little bit of offense to them. They were solid role players... When they weren't scoring goals, they were adding other factors to the game.
Jamieson Rees has 13pts in 14 games. I think it's time for us to give him a few games. From the sounds of it, seems like he can be another McGinn/Foegele type player for us. Seems like he's got some snarl to his game with a little bit of offensive upside.
I also think it's time to send Drury back down. I think he looks okay out there. But he still needs more time in the AHL in my mind.
While I agree with what you are saying regarding our current 4th line, I think it's a bit of revisionist history on McGinn and Foegele. They weren't used on the 4th line very much the last 3 years under RBA.
18-19: McGinn's most common 5v5 line mates were Martinook, Svechnikov, Williams and Wallmark. He was mainly used in a 3rd line/2nd role, although he did play a little time on the 4th. He had the 7th most ESTOI. His most common line combo was McGinn-Martinook-Svechnikov (3rd line) followed by McGinn-Aho-Teravainen, followed by McGinn-Staal-Williams.
Foegele as used on the 4th line some that year and the rest of our 4th line was mainly littered with guys like Rask (before the trade), McKegg, Maenalanen, Bishop, and PDG. Foegele had the 9th most ESTOI and his most common usage was with Staal and Williams followed by McKegg and Maenalanen on the 4th line.
19-20: McGinn spent some time on the 4th line, but more time higher in the lineup. His most common line mates were Staal, Martinook, Wallmark and Foegele. He spent 106 min with martinook and Wallmark (4th line), 85 min with Staal and Svech, 70 min with Staal and Foegele, 39 min. with Staal and Williams. He was 9th in ESTOI among forwards.
Foegele's most common line mates were Staal, Svechnikov and Aho. Foegele had the 6th most ESTOI among forwards and his most common line combinations were Foegele-Staal-Svech, then Foegele-Aho-Svech, then Foegele-Staal-McGinn
20-21: McGinn's most common line mates were Aho, Foegele, Martinook and Svechnikov. His most common line was McGinn-Aho-Svechnikov, followed by McGinn-Martinook-Foegele (which at the time was a 3rd line), followed by McGinn-Aho-Teravainen.
Foegele's most common line mates were Staal, Martinook, Nino and McGinn. His most common lines were: Foegele-Staal-Nino, followed by Foegele-Staal-Svechnikov, followed by McGinn-Martinook-Foegele. Foegele had the 6th most ESTOI and McGinn had the 10th, but he was inured and only played 37 games.
Those guys weren't on the 4th line as much as you are are suggesting, they were mainly 3rd line players and 2nd line players and sometimes even higher up the line-up. They were predominately top 9 players for the 3 years under Rod.
