Shootica

Honestly, I agree with the "he needs to play to the principles" argument. Time after time, we see that the teams who fully buy in are the teams that succeed in this league. And from a managerial standpoint, you cannot lay down a set of rules for the whole team, ignore those rules for one guy, and expect the rest to buy in. I don't think that means he should be dumped with Sheahan and Lazar thought, because that defeats the point of that line. With how this roster is built, I'd run things like this. Line 1: Most minutes. All situations. Line 2: Similar minutes, maybe slightly less. All situations. Line 3: Reduced minutes, heavy offensive usage. Line 4: Reduced minutes, heavy defensive usage. With Skinner, if he isn't buying into the system I'd put him on that 'line 3'. Tell him that if he wants top six minutes back, he needs to put in the work in both ends to be trusted again outside of sheltered minutes. That way, his offensive abilities are still being utilized and he isn't hamstringing a defensive line. But hopefully the reduced minutes lights enough of a fire under him to start playing the right way.

Absolutely. But being better than Chicago is a pretty damn low bar in net.

I know Chicago isn't trying to compete this year, but I don't know how you go into an NHL season with that goalie group. That team is going to be miserable to watch, and downright demoralizing to play for. Meanwhile, Toronto's defense looks rough.

Brandon Biro up. Jack Quinn up. This is for cap reasons, gets our cap hit as high as possible with a 23 man roster before placing Girgs on LTIR. Biro and Quinn both have $925K cap hits, on the high side for ELCs.

If they keep him around for practices while waiting on an OHL decision and maybe throw a game in there, I'm fine with it. But I want him in Rochester when their season begins, until the OHL opens up that is. They absolutely should not be burning an ELC year on Quinn this season. He isn't physically there yet.

Dare I say, Skinner - Cozens - Quinn third line? (I don't expect this to happen, but it sure would be interesting.)

Hopefully that agreement remains in place if the OHL tries to come back without body contact. There's no point to that.

I'd bet that Sheahan is a placeholder for Lazar and will end up a taxi squad piece. I think it's a pretty balanced group in theory. Let's see how it plays in games.

That, by my count, brings us to a full 23 man roster and 6 man taxi squad.

Looks like both Toronto and Arizona are planning to carry 3 goalies into the season. Maybe there's more, that's off the top of my head. And unfortunately for us, New Jersey has a higher waiver priority than us and has an even bigger need in net.

I'm no bankruptcy lawyer, but with his earnings potential I'd imagine he'd get more of the 'income goes directly towards paying debts' type bankruptcy than the 'fresh start' bankruptcy. But maybe I'm wrong there. Echoing what others have said, I hope he figures out his issues and gets himself back on track.

Jeez. He'll be paying that off for the rest of his life.

Eichel's haircut... I have no words.

Smooth skating, undersized offensive defenseman. Can struggle in his own end. Lots of potential that hasn't really panned out thus far. Many say that's on him, many say he hasn't been given a real shot in Calgary. I think he's probably a suitable bottom pairing defenseman in an offensive role, and worth a claim for his potential to develop further. He's be a no brainier claim if we were able to move out a RD in the off-season.

If Detroit doesn't get to him first, absolutely. *****, I would have been alright with giving up a back end pick for Kylington if we moved out one of our righties in the off-season.

Kylington interests me, given our depth at LHD.

I did miss that, appreciate it. Still though, we're stuck with him for along time so I can't blame them for trying to round him out a little bit.

I don't think anyone is saying that Skinner is as good as, or even in the same ballpark as, Ovi. And they're very different players stylistically. But Skinner and Ovi are both goal scorers who have shown questionable defensive ability/effort through a good chunk of their careers. Trotz was able to work with Ovi and develop his defensive game relatively late in his career. Krueger seems to be trying to get more defensive effort out of Skinner, so Ovi is a good player to point towards as an example of it being possible.

I don't think we have close to a large enough sample size to make that claim.

I don't think the situation is that bad. Sheahan you're right about, but Reider would be an effective role player on any team. Same with Okposo. And Eakin is more than fine for a fourth line player, as it seems were using him. I'd really be surprised if Sheahan is in our opening night lineup, I think he's here as insurance if one of the fourth line guys go down. So to me Lazar is the only one I see playing above his weight if you will. Not ideal, but I see it as a small problem in the grand scheme of things.

Very true. I think there is promise for that line to develop into Skinner - Mitts - Cozens as the year goes on. But to start I think having someone more experienced mix in there is beneficial, both for Mitts and Cozens' development and for team defense until those two are a little more proven. Wow, I completely forgot about how we did that last year.

I like the idea, but I think we need to add someone with a lick of defensive ability there. My idea would be to have Mitts and Cozens rotate in and out of the lineup to start the year. Run these two lines: Skinner - Lazar - Cozens Skinner - Mitts - Lazar And that leaves Reider - Eakin -Okposo as the defensive bottom six line.

He looked burnt out in the gold medal game as well. A full (or even partial) NHL schedule is going to be a learning curve for him. I'm leaning more and more to the idea that he'll be rotated in and out of the lineup to start the year, and probably only get 50% of games or so.

I came in to camp thinking Rieder was a bubble roster/taxi squad player, but he's earned himself a permanent spot in camp in my view. I do think there will be a lot of movement between the roster and taxi swad to start the year, especially with all the younger talent it's looking like we'll have on the taxi squad. A lot of players rotating in and out of the lineup on a matchup by matchup basis. So I'm not going to worry too much about how the opening lineup shakes out on Thursday.

That was pretty.