Baseball Coach you are coming off as not wanting Galchenyuk to be a C for the reason that you want Desharnais kept safe.
So:
Move Eller in top 6
Give Plek Patches.
Make Eller a winger in offensive zone.
Move Eller to center in defensive zone.
Move Galchenyuk to winger in defensive zone.
Move Galchenyuk to center in offensive zone.
Give Galchenyuk two different wingers.
All this so you can keep DD as the 3rd line center?? This really makes no sense.
DD is being somewhat sheltered on the 3rd line and is a uni-dimensional player. He's not even good at carrying the puck all that much, there's no reason for him to really be used as a center.
Put Eller back there, give DD a shot at the wing, I'd bet you he'll look the same. Complete them with PAP or Sekac.
I am fine with 27 at C.
This is not about DD being "safe". I am not one of the people who sees every decision through a DD lens, good or bad.
I want two things in the end. I want the top 6 forwards getting the most minutes. And I consider Eller to be in the top 6, unless and until we trade for an even better player without giving up one of our current top 5.
If we are running a top-6 who play 15-20 minutes each, and a bottom 6 who play 10-14 minutes each, then I don't want to do anything that puts a guy not ready for 15-20 minutes into the top 6, like Andrighetto or even Hudon, nor anyone not productive enough, like Desharnais, Bournival, Prust, Tangradi, Bowman or even Parenteau or Weise.
Once we have our top 6, who plays wing and who plays C can be situational decisions. Try different things to see what works best. Maybe the gain from 27 at C is greater than the loss of efficiency of 81 on wing. Or maybe it's the other way around. And if Gallagher can take some offensive-zone draws TODAY on the right side, and none of the Chuckie-vicarious-livers take offense, then why should anyone take offense if Eller takes defensive-zone draws? Hell, sometimes Malhotra takes defensive zone draws, while Galchenyuk plays wing or even sits on the bench, and no one complains much when it happens. So what is this THEORETICAL obsession with Galchenyuk having only one possible role and getting pigeon-holed into it?
Lemaire, Damphousse, Malkin, Sharp, J Staal, Stamkos, Marcel Dionne and even Guy Lafleur did/do all play wing some greater or lesser percentage of the time, but Alex Galchenyuk is not allowed to, even when only 20 years old and still learning, because fan-boys will go apoplectic? This may not be the most ridiculous notion I ever heard of, but it's close.
I don't care about only one player on a team. I care about the team winning. If there are games where the opposing teams' minute-eaters at C might over-match 20 year old Galchenyuk, then I would rather he play more minutes on the wing, than less minutes at C, and let Eller and Pleks handle the other teams' threats!
If using Malhotra to take a draw helps the team, I am for it. If using Eller to take a draw helps the team, I am for it. If using Eller and Plekanec to counter Crosby and Malkin helps the team, I am for it. If, in order to do these things, Galchenyuk must either play less minutes or play LW, I favour LW.
Why is saying these things controversial according to some here? Because Desharnais might play 10-14 minutes? If he does, because he EARNS that right, so be it! If he can't earn a support role, then bench him. In my book, DD has shown he is not a top-6 player, and it seems the coach sees that now. Good! But he deserves the chance for a lesser role, like any other player on the team, where he can contribute as much as he can. We don't need to pick on him anymore, or see EVERY DECISION as being "for or against DD".
