conFABulator
Registered User
- Apr 11, 2021
- 1,259
- 1,153
I was thinking about our depth chart over the next three to five years (our Matthews window) and trying to look at it in terms of relative strengths and needs.
I broke it down into groupings of
Defense is another story..
So, that's the organizational depth chart as I see it. It shows me we need to convert top end forwards to top tier defense, either by trade or allocating cap space through free agency and hope one of these unicorns hits the market.
This might be a long way of showing why trading Marner to addr as top tier d needs makes sense. It could also show us why resigning Marner and trading a Cowan or Knies makes sense. I much prefer the Marner route. It also shows us why moving a Robertson or Liljegren (and jettisoning Kampf and Jarnkrok) are moves we should be very open to if it helps us address the top D positions.
I broke it down into groupings of
- Top Tier Forwards. Top 96 Scoring with extra consideration for brining additional skills and contributions such as strong D play, grit, puck retrieval, etc. We have five guys that are this or project to be this; Matthews, Marner, Nylander, Knies, and Cowan
- Middle Tier Forwards. These are just what they sound like. Guys that can play up and down in the line up. They could play and score on the first line or possibly end up playing a role on the fourth line. They generally fit on the second and third lines. We have eight of these guys; Tavares (assuming reasonable rate resign, Domi, Jarnkrok McMann, Minten, Grebyenkin, Robertson, and Holmberg.
- Bottom Tier Forwards. These are the (generally) low cost guys that can give you eight minutes a night ES and maybe play a role on top of that such as PK or enforcer. We have more that enough of these guys; Kampf, Dewar, Hirvonen, Tverberg, and Quillan.
Defense is another story..
- Top Pairing: These are the the big minute eaters in all situations and you need some offense from these guys for sure. At best we have two of these guys in Rielly and Tanev. You could also argue we have one or none of these guys.
- Middle Pair. We do OK here with McCabe, OEL, Liljegren, Niemela, Danford, and Chadwick.
- Bottom Pair and Depth. We are fine here, most teams probably are. We have Benoit, Haakanpaa, Webber, Kokkonen and who ever slides down from above.
So, that's the organizational depth chart as I see it. It shows me we need to convert top end forwards to top tier defense, either by trade or allocating cap space through free agency and hope one of these unicorns hits the market.
This might be a long way of showing why trading Marner to addr as top tier d needs makes sense. It could also show us why resigning Marner and trading a Cowan or Knies makes sense. I much prefer the Marner route. It also shows us why moving a Robertson or Liljegren (and jettisoning Kampf and Jarnkrok) are moves we should be very open to if it helps us address the top D positions.