MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
I'm getting sick of doing these in April.
Okay, the big questions going into the off season:
- The right side of the blueline just isn't good enough
- What are we doing with that #3 centre slot
- Does management remain patient with the kiddy movement
- What do you do with Jake Gardiner? (fire him out of a regular sized cannon, or a really big cannon?)
Forward:
I think we're more or less set, especially with Kappy and Johnsson proving that they're ready for top 9 duty. In most cases, the loss of a 30 goal winger is pretty crippling, but I don't see it in this case. My preference is that Bozak is brought back on a short term deal so Willy can stay on the Matthews wing for a few more years before he transitions to centre full time, it's easy to lose track of just how young these kids are. Moving Willy to centre at 24-25 years old is still plenty young. We need a longer term answer at 4C though, and I don't care how we do it. I'd task Dubas with finding some gud pros that are possession positive players and can
Hyman-Matthews-Nylander
Marleau-Kadri-Marner
Kapanen-Bozak-Brown
Leivo-XXXXX-Kapanen
I don't see a lot of changes here, or the need for a lot of changes.
Defence
We need changes here. Preferably something of a major remake. Gardiner can go, he almost single handedly torpedoed us in this Bruins series with terrible decision making with and without the puck. Zaitsev is a grenade chucker extraordinaire, but his bounce back in the series was encouraging after a tough season. Polak is a solid gud pro that I wouldn't hate as a #7, but I think the glaring upgrades are #1 RHD, and #2 LHD. I'm cool with moving Dermott into that #2 LHD role, and giving Borgman his slot, and pushing Hainsey and Zaitsev back a slot
Rielly-XXXXX
Dermott-Hainsey
Borgman-Zaitsev
Depending on who that XXXXX is, we could be pretty seriously upgraded here. I've already stated my case for Carlson, but if we can land someone for Jake + stuff that is in the same tier or better, sign me up.
Goaltending
Freddy was bad in this series overall, the numbers just don't lie. No, the team wasn't great defensively in front of him, but you can't make a handful of great saves in a game, then let in 2 softies and call it even. The job is to stop pucks at 92% or better. Teams give up chances, all teams do. Even the defensively elite Bruins gave up a big pile of high end chances in the series, it's just what happens in a hockey game.
With that said, I don't see a way to upgrade on a fringe top 10 goalie without rolling the dice in a hard way (goalie performance can be so goofy from year to year) and paying out the ass. So Freddy it is. But...and this is a big but, as good as McBackup was this season, I think you need to give Sparks a legit shot at playing his way into the #1B role. We need someone who can push Freddy for starts, that we can trust to play 25-30+ times a season, if for no other reason than to give Freddy legit rest during the year. At best, who knows, maybe he turns into a legit top flight starter. His AHL track record is looking like it's a possibility.
Freddy
Sparks
Our trade chips are pretty simple when I look at that lineup. Gardiner is an obvious one, and we probably have one too many top 9 forwards. I dig Connor Brown and he was a legit gud pro this series, but if we had to package him up with Gardiner to get that XXXXX on the blueline, so be it. Kappy and Johnsson are better hockey players imo.
Good season that ended too soon, and the future is still bright as ****. If this was the Mitch Marner break out party in the 2nd half of the season (and into the playoffs), next year is going to be awesome.
Okay, the big questions going into the off season:
- The right side of the blueline just isn't good enough
- What are we doing with that #3 centre slot
- Does management remain patient with the kiddy movement
- What do you do with Jake Gardiner? (fire him out of a regular sized cannon, or a really big cannon?)
Forward:
I think we're more or less set, especially with Kappy and Johnsson proving that they're ready for top 9 duty. In most cases, the loss of a 30 goal winger is pretty crippling, but I don't see it in this case. My preference is that Bozak is brought back on a short term deal so Willy can stay on the Matthews wing for a few more years before he transitions to centre full time, it's easy to lose track of just how young these kids are. Moving Willy to centre at 24-25 years old is still plenty young. We need a longer term answer at 4C though, and I don't care how we do it. I'd task Dubas with finding some gud pros that are possession positive players and can
Hyman-Matthews-Nylander
Marleau-Kadri-Marner
Kapanen-Bozak-Brown
Leivo-XXXXX-Kapanen
I don't see a lot of changes here, or the need for a lot of changes.
Defence
We need changes here. Preferably something of a major remake. Gardiner can go, he almost single handedly torpedoed us in this Bruins series with terrible decision making with and without the puck. Zaitsev is a grenade chucker extraordinaire, but his bounce back in the series was encouraging after a tough season. Polak is a solid gud pro that I wouldn't hate as a #7, but I think the glaring upgrades are #1 RHD, and #2 LHD. I'm cool with moving Dermott into that #2 LHD role, and giving Borgman his slot, and pushing Hainsey and Zaitsev back a slot
Rielly-XXXXX
Dermott-Hainsey
Borgman-Zaitsev
Depending on who that XXXXX is, we could be pretty seriously upgraded here. I've already stated my case for Carlson, but if we can land someone for Jake + stuff that is in the same tier or better, sign me up.
Goaltending
Freddy was bad in this series overall, the numbers just don't lie. No, the team wasn't great defensively in front of him, but you can't make a handful of great saves in a game, then let in 2 softies and call it even. The job is to stop pucks at 92% or better. Teams give up chances, all teams do. Even the defensively elite Bruins gave up a big pile of high end chances in the series, it's just what happens in a hockey game.
With that said, I don't see a way to upgrade on a fringe top 10 goalie without rolling the dice in a hard way (goalie performance can be so goofy from year to year) and paying out the ass. So Freddy it is. But...and this is a big but, as good as McBackup was this season, I think you need to give Sparks a legit shot at playing his way into the #1B role. We need someone who can push Freddy for starts, that we can trust to play 25-30+ times a season, if for no other reason than to give Freddy legit rest during the year. At best, who knows, maybe he turns into a legit top flight starter. His AHL track record is looking like it's a possibility.
Freddy
Sparks
Our trade chips are pretty simple when I look at that lineup. Gardiner is an obvious one, and we probably have one too many top 9 forwards. I dig Connor Brown and he was a legit gud pro this series, but if we had to package him up with Gardiner to get that XXXXX on the blueline, so be it. Kappy and Johnsson are better hockey players imo.
Good season that ended too soon, and the future is still bright as ****. If this was the Mitch Marner break out party in the 2nd half of the season (and into the playoffs), next year is going to be awesome.