January 2023 Thread

[Mr.Wiskers]

Well, we just had an OT loss. The “kid” line was great today, they matched Toronto’s speed well. Once Kreider was taken off of the 1st line and replaced with Vesey, the 1st line looked a whole lot better. Cuylle looked slow but Leschyshyn & Gauthier were able to make up for it, tho’ as a line they really weren’t able to cycle the puck and keep it in the offensive zone long enough for Cuylle to do what he does best and that’s stand in front of the goalie. The 3rd line for me was horrible—when you deal with a fast team, you need to either match their speed or hit the opposition in order to slow them down. Kreider looked disinterested today, failing to cover his man on multiple occasions, Goodrow just looked slow against this team as did Harpur who committed a couple of turnovers.

I still say we need to address that 3rd pair LHD problem 1st and foremost. And we should be seeing if Mathew Robertson is the answer, we should also be switching Ty Emberson over to the left side while he’s in Hartford to see if he can make the switch. For me, Zac Jones is not the answer, too small, not physical enough.

Here’s something to think about: With ALL the talk of us being red hot on the trail after Timo Meier. Also with Meier NOT being a UFA and having a $10 mil. qualifying offer. What if, WHAT IF we—Drury is looking at acquiring Meier for the remainder of the season in order to give him an opportunity to show us/the Rangers that he can handle Broadway, that he can play with Trocheck. If he can do that then it would take us to the next step which would be to trade Panarin, yes trade Panarin. It’s already been thrown out there that an 8 yr./64 mil. contract can get him locked up. Switching out Panarin at $11,642,857 for Meier at $8,000,000 not only saves us $3,642,857 but we also trades out a 31 yr old for a 26 yr old. Yes we give up a lot, I mean A LOT of offensive production but Meier is has 766 hits in 443 career games as opposed to Panarin’s 175 hits in 555 games. Remember Gallant and Drury what this team to play a certain way and Panarin doesn’t fit that style—fast, physical, north/south team that back checks. Just saying!, not something I’d do but it may be something Drury is looking to do. Tho’ we could fit Meier into our cap this year then flip him after the season.—does Kravtsov, Zac Jones and a 1st Rd pick get it done?

[ShadyOne]

We need more offensive firepower…

We barely have enough top line guys for 2 good scoring lines. You cannot win anything like that. Panarin has barely had 2 talented offensive players on his line. We use guys like Goodrow, and Vesey on the top lines. That’s never going to be a cup team

[Mr.Wiskers]

Rangers announced that they have signed Harpur to a 2 yr deal, cap hit is $787,000. Goes a long way towards next years cap.

I agree with you, Shady, we have to get the right guys into those spots.

[Mr.Wiskers]

There’s been a buzz about our re-signing of Harpur to a 2 yr contract extension. A lot of complaining and for what?, Harpur is a 7th d-man and that contract extension was for a little above league minimum. That signing doesn’t prevent us from getting a #6 d-man/that 3rd pair guy. Harpur is a body, a player that will help fill out our roster now and next year. Players like Harpur, Leschyshyn, Vesey, Gauthier, and even Cuylle will help balance out our cap and help filling out our roster.

What does bother me a bit is how our AHL team only has 8 players born after 2000. This is supposed to be where we develop our prospects.

[Mr.Wiskers]

Well the Islanders were the first to pull the trigger one of the biggest trade deadline names of this year in Bo Horvat giving up Anthony Beauvillier( a 25 yr old late 1st Rd pick who has 20 pts in 49 gms this yr who’s in the middle of a 3 yr $4.15 mil. contract); Aatu Raty (a 20 yr old 2nd Rd pick who’s on the 1st year of his entry level contract paying him $836,667) and a 1st Rd pick. While both Beauvillier and Raty are young and promising neither has done enough to be called a star and of course that 1st Rd pick which stands at 13th right now but will definitely fall now that Horvat is on the team and the Islanders are not done making deals. Should be a late 1st when all is said and done. Which brings this conversation to us, if this is the cost of one of the top players available at this years trade deadline then we can argue that Zac Jones, Vitali Kravtsov and a 1st Rd pick is t pretty much the equivalent. Question is who will it be?

[Mr.Wiskers]

There’s been a renewed rumor of Tyler Motte making his way back to NY. While it’s a nice thought, we have to look at our team, what we have, what we need. While it’s only been 2 games, Will Cuylle has looked good and is more than capable of handling our 4th line LW position. If there’s a position that may need an upgrade it’s 4th line Center and as I said before/I wrote in a much earlier post Nick Bjustrad is that guy. While Bjustrad only has a 47.1% face-off win percentage to Jake Leschyshyn’s 52.8%. Bjustrad is 6’6” 215 lbs. to Leschyshyn’s 5’11” 185lbs. and has 11 goals, 10 assist for 21 pts and 104 hits in 50 gms. And as I said before Bjustrad played for Gallant in Florida. A 4th line of Cuylle 6’3” 211 lbs., Bjustrad 6’6” 215 lbs., Gauthier 6’4” 227lbs. looks monsterous but when you Compare THAT line to Boston’s 4th line of Foligno 6’0” 210 lbs., Frederic 6’2” 203 lbs.,and AJ Greer 6’3” 210lbs. OR Tampa’s 4th line of Maroon 6’3” 234 lbs., Paul 6’3” 224 lbs., Perry 6’3” 206 lbs. doesn’t look monsterous AT ALL. Just imagine if we traded for Motte and put him at LW at 5’10” 192 lbs. with Jake Leschyshyn at 5’11” 185 lbs. as 2/3 of a 4th line—-disastrous.

[Mr.Wiskers]

Seems like talks are really heating up as Frank Seravalli is once again writing we are going HARD after Timo Meier, which IF we are looking for that big name star would fit perfectly into our system. It makes a lot of sense to me as I read another article which says the league knows Kane will need hip surgery—which if true drops his value dramatically—there’s no way telling how healthy he is. Tarasenko has also been hurt so Meier would be the guy to go after. Maybe it’s my anxiety going crazy but I’m really starting to feel that we need a star player and Meier is that player—I think that with Grier being in SJ and being Drury’s assistant here, we should be able to get a fair deal done—Kravtsov, Jones & a 1st Rd pick sounds fair and what more is that Meier would just replace Kravtsov spot on the roster.

Which would bring us to our next move which would be deciding on our LHD.