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No Excuses No Limits! The mother fucking goddamn season thread

By Net Rating, the new lineup is the most "stacked top6/top4" lineup we can ice.

Matthews 26
Marner 21
Bertuzzi 3

Tavares 11
Nylander 13
Knies 0

Minten ---
Domi -3
Jarnkrok -3

Kampf -7
Gregor ---
Reaves -12



Rielly 6
Brodie 3

Liljegren 5
McCabe 4

Giordano 1
Klingberg -2
 
I still want to see Willy as a centre for a bit.. talk about a line driver.

Knies Matthews Marner
Jarnkrok/Domi Willy Bertuzzi
Domi JT Robertson/Mcmann (who's picked it up in the A)
OR JT Minten Domi
Gregor Kampf Reaves
 
Willy already plays like a centre when the puck is moving north. I'm not convinced that the two things he's not currently doing (deep forward & faceoffs) are beyond him either. I don't expect him to win a Selke, but I think he'd be passable defensively as a centre. He's entirely fine defensively as a winger despite his reputation, easily has the mobility to be come deep to support the defenders and still engage in transition, and is a career 50.7% from the dot in a representative sample.

It really can't be overstated. He was considered to be the best centre prospect in Sweden since Sundin/Forsberg. That we didn't even try to develop him as a centre is criminally stupid.
 
MindzEye said:
Willy already plays like a centre when the puck is moving north. I'm not convinced that the two things he's not currently doing (deep forward & faceoffs) are beyond him either. I don't expect him to win a Selke, but I think he'd be passable defensively as a centre. He's entirely fine defensively as a winger despite his reputation, easily has the mobility to be come deep to support the defenders and still engage in transition, and is a career 50.7% from the dot in a representative sample.

It really can't be overstated. He was considered to be the best centre prospect in Sweden since Sundin/Forsberg. That we didn't even try to develop him as a centre is criminally stupid.
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If he was developed as C out of the gate, do you think there would be 11M tied up in Osh Kosh Tavares?
 
Honestly I think he's better than ever so no real complaints but yeah... Been a long time since we've seen this on a consistent basis

 
If Willy was developed as a centre he would have been a fringe 1C by the time he was 20-21. Nobody pushes that to the wing to sign an 11 million dollar free agent that in this scenario, they didn't need.

In the season prior to signing JT, Willy had 49 ES points to JT's 51 and in way fewer minutes. He was already as good an even strength point producer as prime Tavares at 21 yrs old. Would be insane to move that off of centre if it had happened there. 11 million could have bought a lot of wingers and defenders.

Babcock set this organization back quite a bit in his handling of all 3 wunderkids.
 
Top centers who want to sign as UFAs in their prime don’t grow on trees. They come around once in a blue moon. There’s no way they would’ve passed on adding another star just to keep Willy at center.
 
Also, they've spent a lot of money on other wingers and defenders over the years. Most have been shit. We just spent over $12M on three guys this summer and so far nobody is celebrating. $12M.

The misconception seems to be that if you have lots of cap space, other teams will just let you get their best players via UFA or trade. Hardly. That's why if you get a chance at someone like Stamkos or Tavares, you fucking go for it, and you're not dissuaded by the thought that you already have a star at their position. It's cool, now you can have two.

The gap year between Tavares and McDavid will be interesting. They'll have a bunch of money suddenly that they can throw at someone, even if Tavares returns on a cheap contract, but they'll basically need to do what they did this offseason and just get some 1 year guys and wait. What the fuck possessed McDavid to sign a max term deal with them, I will never understand. Security is nice, but being chained to Edmonton guaranteed for more than a decade and all your best years...not so nice.
 
MindzEye said:
If Willy was developed as a centre he would have been a fringe 1C by the time he was 20-21. Nobody pushes that to the wing to sign an 11 million dollar free agent that in this scenario, they didn't need.

In the season prior to signing JT, Willy had 49 ES points to JT's 51 and in way fewer minutes. He was already as good an even strength point producer as prime Tavares at 21 yrs old. Would be insane to move that off of centre if it had happened there. 11 million could have bought a lot of wingers and defenders.

Babcock set this organization back quite a bit in his handling of all 3 wunderkids.
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plus don't forget we also had Naz, who was a legit top 6 center.
 
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