zeke
Well-known member
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The Tampa Bay Lightning had imo the most underrated offseason in the league. They got rid of their two most overrated players in Stamkos and Sergachev and replaced them with two elite impact tough usage players in Guentzel and McDonagh. They also managed to get a nice young 24yr old 2nd round pick mobile dman in JJ Moser.
Stamkos is jut a shot and nothing else at this point in his career. Guentzel otoh is a legit two-way beast top liner.
Despite getting credit for being an impact player for their cup runs, Sergachev was only ever their 4th most important dman....if that. He provided good secondary offense behind #1 Hedman but was never much defensively. He played mostly on an extreme sheltered 3rd pair and then in ozone starts paired with Hedman. The cushiest role of all time. Meanwhile McDonagh was the actual shutdown matchup defensive dman that was essential to those cup winning teams, with that McD-Cernak pairing being maybe the best shutdown pairing in hockey at that time. Now they've reunited that pairing and while it won't be as good as it was then, it gives them an anchor pairing and totally frees Hedman from that defensive burden he's been forced to handle the past couple years. Meanwhile they now have Moser in that sheltered Sergachev role and i bet he looks great in it. Tampa should never have ditched McD - it should always have traded Sergachev instead.
Excellent offseason by Tampa imo.
That being said.....Tampa is far from a complete team. Their Top-6 and Top-4 are very good, but the top top guys are starting to get old. And they have zero forward depth beyond that top 6. and I mean zero.
To start the year they chose to stack their top-6 with their only good 6 forwards, which meant Nick Paul up on 2nd line wing with Cirelli and Hagel. And the top two lines have been very good for them. But that meant a bottom 6 of literally 6 guys who probably shouldn't be in an nhl starting lineup anymore. Whether that's journeymen borderline NHLers like chaffee or eyssimont, or old nhl vets who are barely hanging on like Atkinson, Sheary, Girgensons, Glendening. Arguably not even quality 4th liners.
They're trying to force 20yr old Conor Geekie into the lineup straight out of junior, but this is not a prospect whose junior production screamed nhl scoring upside, especially this soon. He should probably be in the AHL right now. (Though, to be fair, i do like his upside going forward). So expect him to score a hattrick tonight.
After their first loss to the Sens on saturday, they've decided to try and balance the lines more......which means Nick Paul back down to 3C, and the legendary Mitchell Chaffee getting the first shot at that open 2nd line spot.
I'm guessing a bit at the Leafs' 3rd and 4th lines here but it's probably a safe guess tbh.
The Tampa Bay Lightning had imo the most underrated offseason in the league. They got rid of their two most overrated players in Stamkos and Sergachev and replaced them with two elite impact tough usage players in Guentzel and McDonagh. They also managed to get a nice young 24yr old 2nd round pick mobile dman in JJ Moser.
Stamkos is jut a shot and nothing else at this point in his career. Guentzel otoh is a legit two-way beast top liner.
Despite getting credit for being an impact player for their cup runs, Sergachev was only ever their 4th most important dman....if that. He provided good secondary offense behind #1 Hedman but was never much defensively. He played mostly on an extreme sheltered 3rd pair and then in ozone starts paired with Hedman. The cushiest role of all time. Meanwhile McDonagh was the actual shutdown matchup defensive dman that was essential to those cup winning teams, with that McD-Cernak pairing being maybe the best shutdown pairing in hockey at that time. Now they've reunited that pairing and while it won't be as good as it was then, it gives them an anchor pairing and totally frees Hedman from that defensive burden he's been forced to handle the past couple years. Meanwhile they now have Moser in that sheltered Sergachev role and i bet he looks great in it. Tampa should never have ditched McD - it should always have traded Sergachev instead.
Excellent offseason by Tampa imo.
That being said.....Tampa is far from a complete team. Their Top-6 and Top-4 are very good, but the top top guys are starting to get old. And they have zero forward depth beyond that top 6. and I mean zero.
To start the year they chose to stack their top-6 with their only good 6 forwards, which meant Nick Paul up on 2nd line wing with Cirelli and Hagel. And the top two lines have been very good for them. But that meant a bottom 6 of literally 6 guys who probably shouldn't be in an nhl starting lineup anymore. Whether that's journeymen borderline NHLers like chaffee or eyssimont, or old nhl vets who are barely hanging on like Atkinson, Sheary, Girgensons, Glendening. Arguably not even quality 4th liners.
They're trying to force 20yr old Conor Geekie into the lineup straight out of junior, but this is not a prospect whose junior production screamed nhl scoring upside, especially this soon. He should probably be in the AHL right now. (Though, to be fair, i do like his upside going forward). So expect him to score a hattrick tonight.
After their first loss to the Sens on saturday, they've decided to try and balance the lines more......which means Nick Paul back down to 3C, and the legendary Mitchell Chaffee getting the first shot at that open 2nd line spot.
I'm guessing a bit at the Leafs' 3rd and 4th lines here but it's probably a safe guess tbh.
