Speculation: Roster Building Thread: Part XX (WTF are we going to do this Off-Season edition)

[Harbour Dog]

The coach doesn't matter. At least if we hire Sullivan soon, it will be over and done with, and we can focus on making sweeping changes to the dressing room.

 

[zlev]

Wow

whoa

 

[Shesterkybomb]

The team is a playoff team by only fixing the defensive structure and breakout. If Sullivan can get Lafreniere, Trochek, and Zibanejad back on track and play Othmann, Berard, Perrault meaningful minutes we'll be cooking.

 

[TGWL]

What was Pittsburgh's D system compared to whatever the hell Housley was doing?

They typically preached having a dman join the rush, which created a lot of odd man rushes when they turned it over. I didn't catch enough games to really know for sure, but I did see them use a decent amount of defensive zone overloads.

I think we're starting to see a hybrid mix of the 3 below. And those that are willing to die by the man-on-man, are getting exposed and out skated.

strong-side overload
zone coverage/box
Man-on-man

 

[Takeahnase]

Mika was shit as well. Laf was better in the first quarter than Mika was in the last. Panarin had his production fall to 75% of his previous year. Worse than Laf or Zib's decline, though a better over all performance. IMO the ONLY two players who lived up to expectations for the year were Cuylle and Carrick. I can't look at any other regular player and say "Yeah, he lived up to, or exceeded, expectations."

Re: Panarin and that 75% stat. I see you bring it up a lot like it is some indictment. Story time.

I worked for a pharmaceutical company that made two of the covid vaccines. Millions of doses of both. Financially it was the salad days for this company. Revenues and profits went up like 1000% for 2 years. Everyone knew that high point wasn’t going to last forever once things normalized.

But when they did normalize, this company around raise and bonus time was like “profits and revenues for the year were down 40% so a shit / disappointing year and so sorry we just can’t do much because it’s a difficult time, etc.”. But for those of us who were there prior to the Fauci Flu, we knew revenues and profits were still really good and not “bad” or “disappointing” at all, in fact they were still quite good.

 

[LeetchisGod]

We don't learn.

 

[NoQuitInNewMexico]

Triumphant (?) return of David Quinn? Wouldn't ask if he wasn't also on Sully's four nations staff

 

[SnowblindNYR]

These are philosophical questions. I'm just a comedian.

A comedian is just a philosopher that gets beaten down by life.

 

[toNYRico]

Live? Jim Cerny interviews Mollie Walker:

"Mopey Mika" and "unimpressive" Laf. Preach and preach.

 

[n8]

It's May the 1st so that means it's time to put an insane idea everyone will hate into the ether.

The Rangers trade: Will Cuylle, K'Andre Miller, Parssinen, NYR 1st
for Sidney Crosby, make him the captain. Pittsburgh will have the best young Finnish line in the league with Koivunen-Parssinen-Puustinen. Of course you can't get a Crosby without sending something of value, which is Cuylle. That'll be the crazy part everyone will hate but keep reading.

If we can afford to, we sign Gavrikov this summer. Kreider to the phantom zone, let go / trade Kaliyev, Jones. Honestly though, Crosby's leadership ought to be able to have a huge impact to righting the ship and instigating some big bounce back seasons from our slumpers.
Our lineup looks something like:

Perrault-Crosby-Lafreniere
Othmann-Miller-Zibanejad
Panarin-Trocheck-Berard
Edstrom-Carrick-Rempe
Brodz

Gavrikov-Fox
Roberston-Schneider
Soucy-Borgen
Vaak

Shesty-Quick

Summer of 2026, goodbye Panarin, hello McDavid. Surely, playing in New York AND with Sidney Crosby is enticing. If there's a world where Zibanejad waives, then let it happen but I'm assuming he doesn't in this scenario. If we can't get to the finals with two generational centers and a #1 goalie, we don't deserve anything good in this world.

Perrault-Crosby-Lafreniere
Othmann-McDavid-Zibanejad
Berard-Trocheck-Miller
Edstrom-Carrick-Rempe
Brodz

Gavrikov-Fox
Roberston-Schneider
Soucy-Borgen
Vaak

Shesty-Garland?

minor leagues peeking in: Roobroeck, Sykora, Laba, Fortescue by then?

 

[zlev]

It's May the 1st so that means it's time to put an insane idea everyone will hate into the ether.

The Rangers trade: Will Cuylle, K'Andre Miller, Parssinen, NYR 1st
for Sidney Crosby, make him the captain. Pittsburgh will have the best young Finnish line in the league with Koivunen-Parssinen-Puustinen. Of course you can't get a Crosby without sending something of value, which is Cuylle. That'll be the crazy part everyone will hate but keep reading.

If we can afford to, we sign Gavrikov this summer. Kreider to the phantom zone, let go / trade Kaliyev, Jones. Honestly though, Crosby's leadership ought to be able to have a huge impact to righting the ship and instigating some big bounce back seasons from our slumpers.
Our lineup looks something like:

Perrault-Crosby-Lafreniere
Othmann-Miller-Zibanejad
Panarin-Trocheck-Berard
Edstrom-Carrick-Rempe
Brodz

Gavrikov-Fox
Roberston-Schneider
Soucy-Borgen
Vaak

Shesty-Quick

Summer of 2026, goodbye Panarin, hello McDavid. Surely, playing in New York AND with Sidney Crosby is enticing. If there's a world where Zibanejad waives, then let it happen but I'm assuming he doesn't in this scenario. If we can't get to the finals with two generational centers and a #1 goalie, we don't deserve anything good in this world.

Perrault-Crosby-Lafreniere
Othmann-McDavid-Zibanejad
Berard-Trocheck-Miller
Edstrom-Carrick-Rempe
Brodz

Gavrikov-Fox
Roberston-Schneider
Soucy-Borgen
Vaak

Shesty-Garland?

minor leagues peeking in: Roobroeck, Sykora, Laba, Fortescue by then?

i love the idea but that defense (even with Gavrikov who i think is very good) still isn't gonna get it done and i dont think that's enough for Crosby either

 

[n8]

"Mopey Mika" and "unimpressive" Laf. Preach and preach.

Molly: "It would be really sad if this season was our lasting memory of #20."
Everyone else:

 

[bhamill]

Re: Panarin and that 75% stat. I see you bring it up a lot like it is some indictment. Story time.

I worked for a pharmaceutical company that made two of the covid vaccines. Millions of doses of both. Financially it was the salad days for this company. Revenues and profits went up like 1000% for 2 years. Everyone knew that high point wasn’t going to last forever once things normalized.

But when they did normalize, this company around raise and bonus time was like “profits and revenues for the year were down 40% so a shit / disappointing year and so sorry we just can’t do much because it’s a difficult time, etc.”. But for those of us who were there prior to the Fauci Flu, we knew revenues and profits were still really good and not “bad” or “disappointing” at all, in fact they were still quite good.

That’s a nice story. But completely irrelevant. Panarin didn’t score 120 points last season due to outside circumstance beyond his control and he didn’t fall to 89 points this season for that reason either. The bottom line is that Panarin had a season that was disappointing to most of us. There’s a lot of real estate between 120 points in 82 games (close to 1.5 ppg) and 89 points in 80 games (about 1.1 ppg). You’re satisfied with that season? Cool. Don’t expect everyone else to be.

 

[n8]

i love the idea but that defense (even with Gavrikov who i think is very good) still isn't gonna get it done and i dont think that's enough for Crosby either

Assuming Sullivan is the coach, he got a lot out of a weak blueline in 2015-16. Maybe Vaak or Robertson can grow into a simple defender (think Ian Cole, Brian Dumoulin, Ben Lovejoy from that year). So maybe not 2025-26, but add McDavid, throw in a hail mary deadline rental if the blueline is a detriment and you've got something. Crosby and McD are pretty worldclass defenders. Crosby for brains. McD for speed and how fast he reacts to the play.

 

[RangersFan1994]

not even Canda wanted Lafréniere or he is so lazy he rather stay home. Mentally soft and weak

 

[HatTrick Swayze]

Sullivan is just so predictable it is painful...will prob give them a slight coaching bump next year then slowly it will settle back into the cold reality that the org is fundamentally devoid of talent and miles behind the rest of the league in play style

 

[leetch99]

Could someone kindly let me know if I've missed the Kreider/Tampa series nugget that was mentioned last week?

No ...I have been extremely busy . I'll get it done someday .

 

[haohmaru]

View attachment 1027437not even Canda wanted Lafréniere or he is so lazy he rather stay home. Mentally soft and weak

He doesn’t deserve to make that team. Hopefully it serves as inspiration.

 

[Levitate]

Hershey seems to have cracked the code in the AHL. Hasn’t really matter who their coach tbh. It would’ve been a hard sell imo to hire a guy with minimal NHL experience to this job, especially with Sullivan available. Trust me, we know you hate Drury lol

IIRC the code to crack in the AHL is have a team mostly made up of top tier AHL players and not focus on developing NHL draft picks

As for Sullivan, I dunno, I'm not excited about it but I'll just have to cope. I still do think that whoever Drury brings in is going to have the greenlight to push the team in ways the previous coaches didn't.

Both previous coaches let the players run the room and had no answer to the players not listening to them, not playing as a team, etc. Whether it's Sullivan or some mystery coach (since nothing is official yet) the emphasis has to be on getting this group into shape as a team and not a buddy group f***in' around on the ice.

But goddamn I will laugh so hard if Torts is one of the assistants and his job is ripping into the players nonstop because they're f***ing off

e: I mean I hate the idea of Torts as HC really but assistant coach of yelling at slackers is some good shit.

A guy like Laf might also hugely benefit from a hardass like Torts. Fox too.

 

[duhmetreE]

I’d give Muse a shot if it’s not Carle.

Sullivan is uninspiring.

 

[Machinehead]

It's still Canada.

Hell of an honor for Cuylle.

 

[Harbour Dog]

It's still Canada.

Hell of an honor for Cuylle.

And Garand!

 

[Machinehead]

Looks like Brett Berard will be skating for Team USA as well.

 

[Siddi]

Yes and Vince at 32 is as fast as McDavid lol. Sorry I think I already beat this debate to death a couple of days ago

By beat to death you mean when you said that you dont believe in science?

What happened other than "right now" is irrelevant... until you want to talk about Mika's best production seasons... hahahaha.

I may have talked about Mikas previous seasons but in the context to compare against other players past seasons. If you have an example where I use previous accolades in a less than fair setting I would happily appologize.

 

[NickyFotiu]

By beat to death you mean when you said that you dont believe in science?

Please don't say that I said things I did not say. I wouldn't do that to you. I treat you fairly.