voyageur
Hockey fanatic
- Jul 10, 2011
- 9,942
- 8,752
You can really never have enough centres in your lineup. Dallas is a good example. Little was always a better centre than Roslovic, especially on the dot, so when the time came for Roslovic to move from 4C to 2C, he didn't exactly run away with the job, and has never held it consistently in his career...Wheeler was better choice, at that time. Copp as a 2C has never panned out, but still remains the best return you could get for a borderline 2C in crunch time. It's nice to have these guys when players go down. Like Big Adam Lowry, because you don't miss a beat in replacement level.This goes back much further then those you mentioned though.
Roslovic was developed similarly to Lambert with similar AHL results. He gets to the show and he's put on the wing and never really trialed at center. They instead put Wheeler and others in the middle. Same thing with Copp. Stays at wing despite clearly being capable of being a middle 6 C as we've seen since he left.
This org doesn't seem to have the patience no matter who it is to stick with them as a center.
It would he the same with Lundell if he were here instead of Cole.
Development doesn't just happen prior to the NHL. There is a learning curve at the NHL that this org just refuses to live with.
2C has been the most talked about position with the Jets even before Little went down. Brad Lambert to me seems like the answer here. Maybe it's another development year, maybe half a year. Maybe it's right out of camp. A healthy year from Lucius and he might even have some competition down the road. Checking line centres, and 4th line centres are in the pipeline. Jets may turn Barron into a centre down the road, which is the least valued piece of the Copp deal. Jets did have a lag in centre drafting and development, after 2011, but the team we started with wasn't very good at too many positions. I'd say they are getting with the program now.