I get the anxiety about potentially having Burns and EK on the same roster again given that it wasn’t a rousing success in SJ the first go around.
I would argue that SJ didn’t have the same left side as we do to offset some of the defensive opportunities that the play making of Burns and EK provide.
a top 4 d pairing of some combo of slavin, Orlov, burns and EK does not on the surface provide that d focused pairing That is defacto pairing that plays the tought d matchup every night.
I would argue if we get EK in our top 4, we are going to lean on our third d pairing more to play some tough minutes as opposed to them being an also ran after thought that gets the easy matchups against fourth lines and always starts in the o zone…
I have shown before how we could bring in EK double retained and still able to fit one of Sjkei/Pesce on the third pair in an own rental situation and still be under the cap….
but from a strategic perspective, if we do land EK, I’m not convinced that TDA is an ideal add via trade for the third pair given the now makeup of the top 4…. Chatfield TDA as our third pairing is going to give us some trouble having that 3rd pair playing tough minutes…. If we still did it, we might have to look at an 11/7 roster a lot of nights as opposed to an 12/6 roster makeup I think and be more active on double shifting and mixing in some 2 d men line sets for the power play…
that I think is why we haven’t gone ahead and finished the trade even though it is now allowed…. The potential other moves need to be sorted out first…. Guess the canes weren’t thinking after the way the Meier thing went that they would still be one of the final teams in on the EK thing when they were trying to make moves pre July 1…. And especially now that Tarasenko pulled his diva move of firing his agent after he signed a deal before it could be filed with the league….
I would hate to lose Pesce From a fan perspective appreciating the value he brought to the team under his current contract. He was a good Cane and good human and good guy. You want good guys on your team. But he earned the right just like all the others did to decide what he wants for his next contract and I appreciate that the team doesn’t mess up our cap by caving to any demands that exceed what the leadership feels is what us needed to keep the team competitive. the team is sticking to their guns and so far it has worked and we aren’t in the mess Toronto is in where they gave out deals they shouldn’t have and now are cal squeezed and they have more players expecting the same thing … see Nylamder looking at Marner and Matthews and saying give me that if you want me to extend here…. It might be cool to give a nice going away present of a cup to these own rentals of Pesce and Sjkei but I understand their logic of thinking 4 years of a double retained EK is a better strategy than losing Pesce for nothing next year because they won’t do 8 years for Pesce….
it
