I mean they aren't really strong. I am being conservative to you comparatively
Hey Bert. It was just such a forceful and cocksure take, Bert.
And as an avowed defender of internet humility, it draws my ire to hear one speak with such certainty of such uncertain matters.
So here's my thinking, Bert.
Not every 4th liner is in a checking role, and not every 4th line is used solely to match against the other teams top lines. And we've got lots of checkers to sprinkle through the bottom six. Amadio, Perron and Greig might eat at lot of those big matchups over "4th line" guys like ostapchuk cousins or gregor.
Gaudette played a decent amount of bottom six for us in 21-22, including time with gambrell, watson, tierney, ennis, etc. I recall him being okay in that role. He brought some secondary offense and wasn't a liability. He led the entire AHL in goals last season and also nearly in points as well. He's a vet and I think he's gonna play his way onto the bottom six leaving the very green ostapchuk as the odd man out.
Crookshank I think will earn a top 9 NHL role eventually (prob 3LW), and to get there I think he's going to leapfrog someone. I'm betting that someone will be Gregor.
But Gregor's contract and penalty kill are good points you made, bert, so maybe Crooksy will have to wait to sneak in via injury replacement. He was an AHL all star last year, he plays with a bit of jam and i think concerns about his defensive game are overblown.
I'm betting on him getting onto this roster this season and I suspect it will be through the bottom six on whichever line is getting the fewest minutes. I call that the 4th line. If you define the 4th line as the "matchup/shutdown/checking" line, I totally see why we're in disagreement here, bert.
You don't believe travis will play any non-shutdown players in the bottom six; I think he will eventually mix these two in (but maybe not to start).
And the way i just said "i think" there gets back to forceful takes and stating opinions instead of absolutist statements.
And the "it has been decided" thing was my lame attempt at a reference to the show The League. Too obscure, posted after a few too many brews. Sometimes i post stuff that is mostly for my own amusement. Like the way i keep using your name, bert. It's so in my head i can read this post like it's spoken by Ernie from Sesame street.
You follow, bert?
I literally said that I think that Gallagher should be on this list of punchable faces (and he could since another bottom-6 player is #1) and you come up with something like that?
