Player Discussion Marco Rossi

[f7ben]

Kaprizov - Rossi - Boldy (offensive)
Foligno - Eriksson Ek - Hartman (defensive)
Ohgren - Yurov - Zuccarello (wildcard)

Put Foligno on the 4th line where he belongs , fire Zuccarello into the sun and replace them with quality top 6 players and you have a team

 

[AKL]

Kaprizov - Rossi - Boldy (offensive)
Foligno - Eriksson Ek - Hartman (defensive)
Ohgren - Yurov - Zuccarello (wildcard)

I don't see why they can't start with something like this and see how that third line goes. It's not like that third line should have many tough matchups with the first two lines like that.

You know, if Yurov really can be a 2way 1C down the line, a lot of our "problems" disappear on their own.

Kaprizov-Yurov-Boldy
Öhgren-Rossi-FA/big good forechecker guy
Foligno-Ek-Hartman
Trenin-Stenlund clone-whoever

If the 2RW was someone like Tuch, there's zero reason that lineup can't win in the playoffs.

 

[Saga of the Elk]

Kaprizov - Crosby - Thompson
Boldy - Rossi - Filip Forsberg
Foligno - JEE - Öhgren
Trenin - Gaudreau - Hartman

Just a few trades and we got a team. Not a great defense probably but this season is probably the Wild's last chance to win a Cup for a decade.

 

[DigitalBoldy]

If Rossi and Hartman aren’t adequate support behind JEE, it’s highly unlikely that a rookie C with limited experience at the position is going to fulfill Guerin’s desire to provide help down the middle.

That’s not what I said. I said that the team is setting out to add a duplicate version of Ek AND (separately) they have said Yurov is going to start at center. That means the center depth is JEE-(Ek Help)-Yurov-4C. If they can’t find “Ek Help” or Yurov can’t hack it at center, then insert Rossi in whichever spot.

 

[KaprizovSaveUs]

Kaprizov - Rossi - Boldy (offensive)
Foligno - Eriksson Ek - Hartman (defensive)
Ohgren - Yurov - Zuccarello (wildcard)

Outcome: First round loss

 

[Wabit]

Do you think Ek is creative offensively , simple question

I don't think he needs to be creative. He needs to be effective at what he does. I don't think Toews, Bergeron, Getzlaf, or ROR are/were that creative either, but there is a lot of Cups (Playoff series wins) between them. Their wings were the creative ones on the line. The center played the good 2-way game to cover the wings taking chances.

A 30 highlight reel goals count the same on the scoreboard as 30 lawn implement goals. A line that scores 100 goals but gives up 120 goals is less effective than a line that scores 85 goals and gives up 70 goals.

A center that can't play in the d-zone is a wing. A center that can't play in the o-zone is a 4th liner. A center that plays well in both zones is a middle-6er. A center that is high end in both is a 1C.
JEE falls into the 2C, good in the o-zone, very good in the d-zone category.
Hartman falls into the 3C, okay in the d-zone, good in the o-zone category.
Rossi falls into the wing category, good in the o-zone, bad in the d-zone. Nothing wrong with this. The team should play to his strengths.

 

[DigitalBoldy]

Do you think Ek is creative offensively , simple question

I don’t, but I also don’t think Rossi is either. Kaprizov and Boldy are the offensively creative forwards. Fiala was too. Ek and Rossi are just not that kind of player.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

I still think we should let Rossi actually plateau, instead of the current theoretical plateau.

 

[f7ben]

I don’t, but I also don’t think Rossi is either. Kaprizov and Boldy are the offensively creative forwards. Fiala was too. Ek and Rossi are just not that kind of player.

I think Rossi can be more than he is and what he is now is very good. Mostly I agree though

 

[f7ben]

I don't think he needs to be creative. He needs to be effective at what he does. I don't think Toews, Bergeron, Getzlaf, or ROR are/were that creative either, but there is a lot of Cups (Playoff series wins) between them. Their wings were the creative ones on the line. The center played the good 2-way game to cover the wings taking chances.

A 30 highlight reel goals count the same on the scoreboard as 30 lawn implement goals. A line that scores 100 goals but gives up 120 goals is less effective than a line that scores 85 goals and gives up 70 goals.

A center that can't play in the d-zone is a wing. A center that can't play in the o-zone is a 4th liner. A center that plays well in both zones is a middle-6er. A center that is high end in both is a 1C.
JEE falls into the 2C, good in the o-zone, very good in the d-zone category.
Hartman falls into the 3C, okay in the d-zone, good in the o-zone category.
Rossi falls into the wing category, good in the o-zone, bad in the d-zone. Nothing wrong with this. The team should play to his strengths.

Effective is fine , creative would be optimal when you’re talking about pairing someone with a player of Kap caliber

 

[Wabit]

Effective is fine , creative would be optimal when you’re talking about pairing someone with a player of Kap caliber

Not really. You don't need 3 creative FWDs on a line in 5v5 situations (PP is another situation). Of MN centers Staal would be the ideal center to put with Kap. I have JEE as 2nd (over Koivu) on the list due to his net area presence and how it opens up the ice by drawing the big/physical d-man to him. MN centers are pathetically slim pickings to choose from is another argument.

I'd like to see how a Kap/JEE/Rossi line works together. 2nd line of Boldy/Yurov/Ohgren (not this year but in the future). It depends on how Yurov and Ohgren develop, but that could be a quaity top-6 in a year or two.

 

[f7ben]

Not really. You don't need 3 creative FWDs on a line in 5v5 situations (PP is another situation). Of MN centers Staal would be the ideal center to put with Kap. I have JEE as 2nd (over Koivu) on the list due to his net area presence and how it opens up the ice by drawing the big/physical d-man to him. MN centers are pathetically slim pickings to choose from is another argument.

I'd like to see how a Kap/JEE/Rossi line works together. 2nd line of Boldy/Yurov/Ohgren (not this year but in the future). It depends on how Yurov and Ohgren develop, but that could be a quaity top-6 in a year or two.

Creative forwards compliment each other

 

[Wabit]

Creative forwards compliment each other

And? How do they look in the d-zone? Hockey is 200' game not just inside the o-zone of the blueline. This seems to be the only part of the ice that matters when talking about Rossi though.

JEE had more points and goals than Rossi has in a season. While playing with 3rd liners for the majority of the season. Rossi plays 2/3 of the time with at least one of the 2 best wingers on the team (yet I keep getting told he played with the dregs in the lineup). Yet JEE somehow doesn't drive play or have the o-zone skills.

 

[AKL]

JEE had more points and goals than Rossi has in a season.

So we're just gonna keep comparing Ek at 27 to Rossi at 23 then? Unabashedly not caring about how pointless that is?

 

[f7ben]

So we're just gonna keep comparing Ek at 27 to Rossi at 23 then? Unabashedly not caring about how pointless that is?

Rossi peaked offensively and it was due to Boldy and Kap , also he is never going to get any better defensively and we can’t even call what he’s done in that end a “peak” ….

Learned that here !!!!

 

[DigitalBoldy]

Comparing 23 year old Rossi to 23 year old Eriksson Ek is a fool's errand. They were not even close to having the same type of deployment or linemates.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

And? How do they look in the d-zone? Hockey is 200' game not just inside the o-zone of the blueline. This seems to be the only part of the ice that matters when talking about Rossi though.

JEE had more points and goals than Rossi has in a season. While playing with 3rd liners for the majority of the season. Rossi plays 2/3 of the time with at least one of the 2 best wingers on the team (yet I keep getting told he played with the dregs in the lineup). Yet JEE somehow doesn't drive play or have the o-zone skills.

Last year, Eriksson Ek's most common 5v5 linemate was Boldy (from when they had the Boldy/Ek/Johansson line together). Kaprizov was 2nd (from when they put the "big 3" together).

After the Vancouver game last year where that line went nuclear (Ek and Kaprizov had matching 3+3's in a 10-7 win), here were the stat lines:

Kaprizov: 23 + 16 = 39 in 27 (12 + 13 = 25 ES)
Boldy: 9 + 16 = 25 in 27 (6 + 15 = 21 ES)
Eriksson Ek: 2 + 11 = 13 in 22 (2 + 7 = 9 ES)

One can claim his defense allowed those two to flourish. One can also claim that he maybe hindered them offensively, even with their nice production. This year's playoffs seemed to be a continuation of that, whichever side one wants to take.

 

[AKL]

Comparing 23 year old Rossi to 23 year old Eriksson Ek is a fool's errand. They were not even close to having the same type of deployment or linemates.

Yeah because Rossi is miles ahead of where Ek was at 23 offensively lol, that's why he gets the deployment he got

I would hate to be the person who thinks it makes more sense to compare a 23 year old 2nd year player to a 27 year old 7th year player

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

So Kaprizov had an incredible 1/3 season run at the end of 2023-24 + current year playoffs playing with Boldy. He also had an incredible almost 1/2 season run in 2024-25 playing with Rossi.

I'm going to be pretty bummed out when we don't get to see an extended Kaprizov/Rossi/Boldy run.

 

[AKL]

So Kaprizov had an incredible 1/3 season run at the end of 2023-24 + current year playoffs playing with Boldy. He also had an incredible almost 1/2 season run in 2024-25 playing with Rossi.

I'm going to be pretty bummed out when we don't get to see an extended Kaprizov/Rossi/Boldy run.

I just wanna connect the dots here

Kaprizov paced for career highs when playing with Ek and Boldy
Kaprizov paced for career highs when playing with Rossi and Zuccarello

We know Boldy is a much better player than Zuccarello, so logically speaking, Rossi must have been picking up the slack there on that line to start this season

But yeah, a year long look at Kaprizov-Rossi-Boldy would be a lot of fun, even if it means we have no secondary scoring

 

[AKL]

For whatever it's worth, from December 27th through February 28th, in 25 games for each:

Boldy: 8g, 22p, 16esp, +3
Rossi: 9g, 23p, 17esp, +5

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

I just wanna connect the dots here

Kaprizov paced for career highs when playing with Ek and Boldy
Kaprizov paced for career highs when playing with Rossi and Zuccarello

We know Boldy is a much better player than Zuccarello, so logically speaking, Rossi must have been picking up the slack there on that line to start this season

But yeah, a year long look at Kaprizov-Rossi-Boldy would be a lot of fun, even if it means we have no secondary scoring

Sign Rossi for $7M and we still have $7M to add someone to Ek, Zuccarello (great/elite leader), and 2 talented kids. Should be able to find at least a little bit of secondary scoring with the best 3 of those 5 pieces.

 

[DigitalBoldy]

Yeah because Rossi is miles ahead of where Ek was at 23 offensively lol, that's why he gets the deployment he got

I would hate to be the person who thinks it makes more sense to compare a 23 year old 2nd year player to a 27 year old 7th year player

He really wasn't.

Ek's 5v5 p/60 at 23: 1.96 with Kunin/Greenway and FolignoGreenway as his most common line.

Rossi's 5v5 p/60 at 23: 1.72 with Boldy/Zucc and Kaprizov/Zucc as his two most common lines.

Rossi performed worse with substantially better wingers.

 

[AKL]

Sign Rossi

I'm gonna defer my excitement until this step is complete

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

He really wasn't.

Ek's 5v5 p/60 at 23: 1.96 with Kunin/Greenway and FolignoGreenway as his most common line.

Rossi's 5v5 p/60 at 23: 1.72 with Boldy/Zucc and Kaprizov/Zucc as his two most common lines.

Rossi performed worse with substantially better wingers.

Obligatory "Sean Monahan > Kucherov, Draisaitl, McDavid, Crosby, Eichel, Matthews and MacKinnon in P/60 this year".