It's a clear indictment of what the coaches think of the depth that Cheveldayoff has given them, and I don't think it's at all justified.
I think the hold up is that they can't even grasp the concept that players can fill a role on a line outside of scoring or checking. Players like Svechnikov can have an actual positive effect on a line with Connor and Dubois that doesn't inflate his own boxcar stats.
There's some kind of broken philosophy that players outside of the top 6 aren't going to score a lot but all it really comes down to is our 3rd line is deployed almost exclusively defensively (~67% defensive zone starts all situations) with players that can't actually handle the matchups they're given. Put Stastny there on the "3rd line" with Copp or Wheeler and feed them some of the glut of offensive minutes that exclusively go to the top 6 right now and they'll produce. I doubt it would negatively affect the top 6's production in any significance either.
Good post. The bolded especially is IMO a really important point.
Not every player on a top line needs to be elite for that line to flourish. Sometimes a complementary talent is the spark that starts the fire -- look the Minnesota line of JEE, Greenway, etc. I think that the Jets under Maurice were consistently looking to fit players into preassigned slots -- and when they didn't fit those slots, they had nowhere to go.
Svetch isn't going to carry a line. But what he's good at -- slowing the play down, digging out pucks and having the vision to open up space with a move or a pass -- turns out to be what PLD and KfC can really use. I suspect that Perfetti will also be the straw that stirs the drink on a line with Ehlers and whomever, but that's going to require Wheeler dropping down, as he should.
Some players (DeMelo, PLD, Ehlers and likely Perfetti) can play with anyone and make them better -- Ehlers is pretty much a one-man line, of course. But line chemistry is clearly a thing, and finding it requires having an open mind as to who
can rather than
must play where. It's one of the reasons why top-line 55/26 has really held the team back, as has the whole 34d line grind and 4th line placeholder structure that few if any other teams employ.
I do think Lowry has been a bit better at this than Maurice -- but so could my sofa cushion, and it doesn't even possess sentience. Something to look hard at during the long offseason, I guess.
