Roster Building XXII: Too Many Forwards, Hopefully One Cup

[Borsig]

Define 'nowhere near as good' in your outlook of the defense.

Well, probably not gonna be in the top 5 in Goals against

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

the goal seems to be to increase goal production from the back end (maybe not necessarily them scoring it but they all have puck moving abilities now). being top 5 in GF% should be the goal.

 

[WreckingCrew]

the goal seems to be to increase goal production from the back end (maybe not necessarily them scoring it but they all have puck moving abilities now). being top 5 in GF% should be the goal.

Haven't we been on of the best at producing from the blue line the past few years? And terribad from our forwards. Ghost/Walker should be sufficient to replace Skjei offensively (though a big downgrade from Skjei/Peace defensively) but our forwards again are going to suck outside Svech/Aho/Necas/Jarvis

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

Well, probably not gonna be in the top 5 in Goals against

Yeah I would probably agree with that. I think goaltending is going to be a big factor on that this year (obviously). Maybe I'm optimistic but I think Pyotr can take a big step this year. Andersen likely similar to last year but overall that is probably better goaltending than we got last year.

I don't expect top 5 in GA but top 10 is realistic and we should be OK with that. As others have mentioned, if the GF has an uptick then maybe it all evens out in the wash.

 

[bleedgreen]

We’ve had really good defenseman playing our style for a while more than we’ve had guys you’d target for our style despite being not quite as good. This is obviously changing with Ghost and Walker. If they’re a really good fit for the style it may not matter that much that they’re not as good defensively.

It probably will matter, but there’s an outside chance these two fit like a glove when it comes to pushing the play up the ice and it really cushions the blow of losing what we did.

 

[chaz4hockey]

Just got my 24-25 McKeens Yearbook. They have us a 1st in our Division/Conference at 109 pts with only Dallas-115 and the Oilers-110 finishing higher.

Yikes, what are they seeing? Don't they know we have a defensive jumble?

A little bit of sarcasm here but interesting to see a periodical so bullish on our results (they see Jarvy/Aho as a 40 goal scorers but Svetch still scoring in the 20's)

 

[The Jerk Store]

Hopefully the goaltending will be a bit more consistent this year as well.

 

[spockBokk]

Gostisbehere was a decent enough fit his first time around. It’s just that he blew his offensive wad the first few games after the trade and he was just kinda “there” for the rest of that regular season and playoff run. I can’t remember him being noticeable after those first few games, which for an offenses be defenseman, is part of the battle anyway, no real glaring defensive miscues I can recall.

You have to hope his 2nd stint he’s able to incorporate his offensive game more and that he is the 1st PP unit’s QB.

Walker, I think will fit right in from day 1, just a hunch.

I’m still not sold on Chatfield as an everyday top 4 D, which is why I like him better with Gostisbehere vs Orlov. Orlov has no choice, he pretty much has to be top 4 quality for the D to “work” this season. Judging from his play last spring though, that shouldn’t be a problem.

The battle for who takes the 2nd line LW spot will be the most interesting in camp I think. I personally don’t think Nadeau is the best candidate for the job, nor the most likely to fill that spot. But, someone gonna have to.

 

[spockBokk]

Well ok then:

https://x.com/i/web/status/1833611243158180287

 

[Brock Anton]

Kuznetsov replacement on the PP.

 

[A Star is Burns]

I stand by what I said recently about none of the PTOs remaining being all that exciting, but I kinda like Gagner for how long he's stuck around as a player in spite of not hitting his full upside. If nothing else, a fun way to fill those vet minimums in preseason.

As for the defense, we've been spoiled recently but this defense from top to bottom stacks up pretty decently with some of the other defenses we had in the Brind'Amour era. It might fall off a bit at the top end depending on the play of Burns and Orlov, but a lot of those teams had really meh bottom ends compared to this team. I still think we'll be well above average when all is said and done.

 

[Discipline Daddy]

My wife just casually sent me a picture of her at Chipotle with Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Seth Jarvis, Sebastian Aho, and Juha Jaaska, who we signed in April to an ELC. Haven't had the chance to talk to her about it.

Same Chipotle I have seen Jordan Martinook at (North Hills) a couple years ago.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I can't believe no one has pointed out this butterfly effect...

No gardiner means we don't waive forsling!!!1

(Maybe - or we got someone else in the 2019 offseason that also blocks him. And this ignores fleury and bean and ...)

I for one am much more willing to live with “we waived Forsling to keep Gardiner, but unfortunately he got hurt” rather than “we waived Forsling to give Jake Bean another shot at the big time”

 

[NotOpie]

I for one am much more willing to live with “we waived Forsling to keep Gardiner, but unfortunately he got hurt” rather than “we waived Forsling to give Jake Bean another shot at the big time”

Why not both?

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

I was looking at the Bobrovsky contract today. $10 million cap hit next year, but also expiring with a 16-team no-trade list. Somehow, I think it may be a great fit for the Canes next season, and there aren't going to be many contenders out there who can effortlessly swallow a cap hit like that. If Florida wants to retain someone like Verhaeghe and upgrade at RD, they probably would want to be free of that cap hit. The Canes can run an elite goalie tandem next year, and then use the majority of the cap on a massive 8-year Nikishin extension the season afterwards.

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

I was looking at the Bobrovsky contract today. $10 million cap hit next year, but also expiring with a 16-team no-trade list. Somehow, I think it may be a great fit for the Canes next season, and there aren't going to be many contenders out there who can effortlessly swallow a cap hit like that. If Florida wants to retain someone like Verhaeghe and upgrade at RD, they probably would want to be free of that cap hit. The Canes can run an elite goalie tandem next year, and then use the majority of the cap on a massive 8-year Nikishin extension the season afterwards.

Blowing 10+ mil on a down hill goalie seems like a bad idea

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

Blowing 10+ mil on a down hill goalie seems like a bad idea

As a 1 year placeholder for Nikishin's future salary slot, likely for no assets like with MAF? I could see the Canes going for it.

 

[A Star is Burns]

He may be good again at this point but still need to be paid for that. What we getting? Next Jarvis? Next Turbo?

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

Much rather chase something we need. Bob doesn’t solve anything at 36 and we are putting the cart well before the horse assuming we can’t spend our cap space long term because of Nikishin.
Depending on how SKA does in the playoffs, Nikishin may not even play in a single game next season.

 

[SlavinAway]

What about Kessel on a PTO?

 

[bleedgreen]

What about Kessel on a PTO?

I don’t know. I look at that picture of him with the Stanley Cup full of hot dogs and question whether this man has anything left to prove in this game….or this life. He could maybe sail off into the sunset a fulfilled human being.

 

[SlavinAway]

I don’t know. I look at that picture of him with the Stanley Cup full of hot dogs and question whether this man has anything left to prove in this game….or this life. He could maybe sail off into the sunset a fulfilled human being.

He could. Only reason I brought it up is the new reports that he wants to come back.

 

[bleedgreen]

He could. Only reason I brought it up is the new reports that he wants to come back.

Didn’t he try with Vancouver or someone last year? I have a memory of some video, he was not close to being in the shape you’d expect of an nhl’er. Who knows, he’s definitely a boom or bust type. I still think we have too many forwards as is so if we did it you’d think it was just for preseason coverage. I love me some Phil though.

 

[cptjeff]

Didn’t he try with Vancouver or someone last year? I have a memory of some video, he was not close to being in the shape you’d expect of an nhl’er. Who knows, he’s definitely a boom or bust type. I still think we have too many forwards as is so if we did it you’d think it was just for preseason coverage. I love me some Phil though.

He was a one dimensional goal scorer who couldn't score goals in his last two years in the NHL. Seriously, 164 games, 22 goals. And if he's not scoring lots of goals, he's a serious liability on the ice. And when he tried for the comeback last year, he was more or less laughed of the ice.

His career is beyond over, whether he wants to admit that to himself or not. He survived on pure talent for a long time, but right about when he hit 30 he fell off a cliff, because that's the age where conditioning starts to really, really matter in whether somebody can continue to play at the NHL level. And well, that's not exactly Phil Kessel's forte.

The only reason we would ever sign Phil Kessel to even a PTO would be to provoke Rod into rage quitting.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

I'm still watching the Nick Robertson situation closely. With our treasure trove of young winger prospects, especially right-handed ones, I could easily see one of them (Jackson Blake, potentially) being swapped for a guy who's an NHL-ready, left-handed version of them.