He was awful down the stretch before covid hit last season, making brutal mistakes when the team needed wins. This year, after his disaster first month plus, he was a good 2nd line player for the most part, but in that last week or so he, like Panarin and Zibanejad, disappeared completely. Oh sorry, he fought someone on Washington...
Strome is a middle 6 player who belongs on the wing. I think if he was playing the wing on the 3rd line I would have much less of a problem with him, however, he doesn’t play that blue collar game so that would be a problem when you are trying to build a pain in the ass team to play against. He never has. I dont know why anyone would think if he was asked that he would just morph into that player. And he is also quite terrible in his own end defensively, no matter what the importance of the game is.
The problem for Strome is he is just too much of the same. More concerned with the finesse and flare of offensive play. And unfortunately you can only have so many of those players before needing more diversity in the lineup. You arent getting rid of Panarin. And if it came down to it I am choosing Zibanejad every time over Strome. Kreider isnt going anywhere. Lafreniere isnt. Kakko very likely isnt. Chytil and Buch could. But you need so much more grit and fight in this lineup. Really Strome, Buch, and Chytil could all end up going this offseason and depending on the return the team would be better for it. They may have a subtraction in offensive numbers but if it mean an increase in W’s who cares.
