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Do we have a "LW Problem"?

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smoneil

smoneil

Registered User
Jul 14, 2004
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Rochester, NY
Looking at the current roster and the performance/prestige of our prospects/young players, what are we going to do about our apparent "LW problem"?

We have Panarin and Kreider locked in on the top six for the next four and five years respectively. It's already a bit of an issue in that it's blocking Lafrieniere from getting minutes and PP time. Add in the fact that some of our best performing prospects (Othmann, Cuylle, Berard, Barron if he doesn't stick at Center), and we have a pretty serious log-jam coming up. Cuylle, Berard, and Barron are more 3rd line guys ideally, but what do we do about the two spots for four players problem (Bread, Kreider, Othmann, Lafrieniere)? Laf and Kreider have tried and failed to play the off wing. Has Othmann played on the RW much in juniors? If Othmann or Laf show themselves ready to take a top-six role, is moving Bread in a year or two even in the realm of possibility?
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Bread has an NMC but moving him is like a skeleton key to the depth chart. He’d return a massive asset haul (assuredly including a legit 2C at least plus lots of other stuff), open up a spot for Laf (or one of those other guys), allow us to hop off the “who will mesh with Bread and Strome” pain train, and free up a big chunk of cap space.

Yes, Panarin is a great player who has exceeded expectations here. Yes, we are lucky to have him.

The organizational depth chart is what it is though. And we’ve repeatedly seen this team perform quite well in his absence. What if his absence also garnered a huge return that plugs a bunch of lineup holes and upgrades areas of need?
 
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I wonder how amenable Bread would even be to waive the NMC, or what the market would be (players of that caliber aren't often moved). I suppose another possible option could be to move either Laf or Othmann for a similarly talented C or RW prospect. I just don't see how everyone will fit if we don't make at least one or two moves with this group.
 
Mikachu93 said:
This team is not moving Panarin. That is absolutely crazy
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Not necessarily advocating for that. It just seems that we are facing a logjam, shifting players to the right hasn't been a fix thus far, and all of the options have positives and drawbacks.

If we move Panarin, we lose one of the best players in the league, but gain the potential to plug multiple holes and instantly solve our cap crunch (sort of like a higher profile version of when the Jets traded Jamal Adams--people were upset, but that worked out pretty well for them thus far).

If we move Kreider, we get SOME cap back, though the return likely won't be game-changing due to other teams worried about his contract size and length. He's also grown into THE leader of the team, and is one of the only players with real playoff experience.

If we move Laf or Othmann for a similar prospect, we run the risk of projecting incorrectly, and getting someone who fizzles while we get to watch our draft pick (the first 1st overall in modern team history no less) become a star somewhere else.

Or we do nothing and risk stunting/further stunting the development of our kids because their path to real minutes is blocked until their mid-20s.

Any possible move is a risk. Just curious to hear how folks here would approach the issue.
 
You simply move someone to C or RW like every other team does while this team makes it sound like the absolute hardest thing in the world - so hard it’s not even worth trying in practice or for more than a game before blowing it up. Yea it never works because they never give it a chance. Tell Kreider he’s playing RW for the next month and let him get used to it. Of course if you love him there for one game you’re going to end up going back since he’s not used to it and needs time to get comfortable
 
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I get it but part of me is like why even discuss trading Panarin? It's just ridiculous IMO. You operate under the (IMO) no-brainer move of keeping him thru this contract or nearly all of it, and work around that.
 
Jauffre said:
I get it but part of me is like why even discuss trading Panarin? It's just ridiculous IMO. You operate under the (IMO) no-brainer move of keeping him thru this contract or nearly all of it, and work around that.
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It's the least safe but the highest yield move of the set. If you could get a return of Byfield/Kaliev/Cap dump (to offset the salary a bit) from the Kings for example, then that goes a LONG way to filling other holes in the roster where we currently have almost nothing in the entire system (top six center prospect and top six RW prospect). Almost like a higher end version of the Gaborik to Columbus trade. Panarin is also producing quite a bit less this year compared to the previous two years.

Like I said--I'm not advocating for it. But I can see the allure of it, and of the options available to us to solve the LW logjam, it has the highest home run potential.

You could theoretically ice a lineup of:

Kreider-Zib-Kaliev
Laf-Byfield-Kakko
Othmann-Chytil-Blais (or Kravtsov)
Cuylle-Barron-Goodrow

and with the saved cap, you would be able to keep Trouba, giving a defense of:

Lindy-Fox
Miller-Trouba
Jones-Schneider

That's a pretty tempting lineup considering what we're currently looking at re: center and RW. It's just that if it blows up, we look like effing morons, haha.
 
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Yeah let’s move a hart candidate, over ppg player so an unproven prospect can take his place so we can have more unproven prospects to play in our 3rd line. That is how you manage a billion dollar business, right?
 
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Typical HF... let’s move our undisputed best forward in his prime while we are at the top of the Eastern Conference to make room for prospects and create cap space. This isn’t unlike people wanting to dump Strome over the summer because Chytil was going to be an elite 2C.
 
Synergy27 said:
Bread has an NMC but moving him is like a skeleton key to the depth chart. He’d return a massive asset haul (assuredly including a legit 2C at least plus lots of other stuff), open up a spot for Laf (or one of those other guys), allow us to hop off the “who will mesh with Bread and Strome” pain train, and free up a big chunk of cap space.

Yes, Panarin is a great player who has exceeded expectations here. Yes, we are lucky to have him.

The organizational depth chart is what it is though. And we’ve repeatedly seen this team perform quite well in his absence. What if his absence also garnered a huge return that plugs a bunch of lineup holes and upgrades areas of need?
Click to expand...

Who will mesh with our Hart candidate LW and near PPG 2C who miraculously turned a 4A player like Blackwell into a top 6 forward last year? Clearly, the smartest course of action is to dump the Hart candidate and center...
 
Moving Panarin would be nuts, but we do have a problem with balance in our forward lines and I think it’s a big reason why we don’t have great 5v5 statistics. I love Laf, but of course we get the #1 overall pick in a year where the top player plays a position of strength for us.

I doubt Kreider ends his career here. I love what he and Trouba bring to the team, but they seem like the odd men out long term. I also think either Kreider or Laf have to make the move to RW.
 
Barnaby said:
Typical HF... let’s move our undisputed best forward in his prime while we are at the top of the Eastern Conference to make room for prospects and create cap space. This isn’t unlike people wanting to dump Strome over the summer because Chytil was going to be an elite 2C.
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Who says we need to do this now?
 
mas0764 said:
Kreider will be traded eventually.
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Correct. I think we try 2 playoff runs with him and then evaluate our options then. For all we know Laf may continue to underwhelm in a couple of years and we have to decide what to do with him as well. Let's hope not though.

And this is also why we're not moving CK down in the lineup either. He's performing like a top liner AS, and when we do eventually trade him, whenever that might be, we want him at peak performance as well to maximize the return.
 
SA16 said:
You simply move someone to C or RW like every other team does while this team makes it sound like the absolute hardest thing in the world - so hard it’s not even worth trying in practice or for more than a game before blowing it up. Yea it never works because they never give it a chance. Tell Kreider he’s playing RW for the next month and let him get used to it. Of course if you love him there for one game you’re going to end up going back since he’s not used to it and needs time to get comfortable
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This. Rangers are like >95% to make the playoffs so the team is just playing for seeding at this point and the matchups don’t even matter all that much. If there were ever a year to experiment in the regular season, this is it. Try all 3 left wingers on the right, would even see if Lafreniere could play center. Worst case it costs them a couple points in the standings but at least you’ve learned a lot. Maybe something clicks and the team is much better setup for the playoffs and going forward.
 
I still believe that if Gallant wanted Lafreniere in the top-six, he would make him a RW. Moving a player from one wing to the other is rarely this big an issue.

The thing that's blocking Laf from getting more PP time, is that he has 0 points in 125 minutes on the PP.
 
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