We moved Panarin to the right, that is not optimal for him.
Anyway, my point is just, we can’t have it both ways. I am fairly certain that you severely will hold back an elite offensively gifted young players development if you don’t play him on the PP for 4-5 years. If it’s not worth it to sacrifice whatever you need to sacrifice on the PP — fine. But all cards should be on the table when you make that decision. All pros and cons should be considered.
When David Quinn was here, we could have jump started these kids development (which basically is a must when you rush an 18 y/o kid to the NHL), but he chose to go with Colin Blackwell instead while it was clear that we only were playing for meaningless pts. That decision is criminally bad, and it’s such a shame that nobody recognized it among the experts covering this team and all the pundits. But it’s not that rare for NYR, nobody of the pundits knows anything about hockey or learned all they know in the 70s (total Ponzi clowns like JD included).
If it’s worth it to waste a Laf to get 5 goals more out of Ziba and the PP over 82 games — sure, you do it.
But Gallant in all likelihood won’t be here in 5 years, I will. What is good for him vs what is good for me differs quite much.
