R4ff

Willie! We got our man (well, the guy I wanted)!

As much as I do want him to succeed, I don't see him as our 2nd line C unless he has a stellar camp. If he doesn't crack the opening lineup I wonder if they'd keep him around as a rotating 13th forward. I know it's not the best for development, but it'll be better asset management.

Schroeder did have his opportunity, but what some people fail to realize is that he was placed in the top 6 immediately after injury. Obviously he was going to be rusty and found himself as a healthy scratch weeks later. During that top 6 stint the team was playing some of its worst hockey in a long time. He was also misused on the powerplay, I'm pretty sure they had him parked in the slot and the front of the net which had me scratching my head. Schroeder should've been the half wall QB on the second pp unit. This kid still has tons of upside, let's just scrap this injury plagued season and rewind to last summer where there was still optimism around the same Schroeder that showed glimpses of elite playmaking and vision in his rookie season.

Polasek's contract was terminated so he could return to the Czech league.

I'm torn between Nylander and Virtanen. Virtanen is physically dominant and we all know what kind of player he's going to be, but Nylander seems to have the higher ceiling. Nylander lit up the U18's and is an all-around offensive talent that can dish the puck and finish. He could very well be an elite level talent in the NHL. In regards to Ehler, Drouin's clearly inflating his numbers.

Virtanen is a true power forward and is a straight up and down, score off the rush player. The defensemen in the NHL are much stronger and trucking through everybody will be much more of a challenge. The one thing I question with Virtanen is his vision and hockey sense. Nothing worse than a player who as all the tools but skates like a bull with his head down, never looking up (Aka. David Booth), which is my worst fear with him. He is a speedster though, which makes up for some of it. But speed and strength alone won't help a ton with in-zone offence. Until I'm shown Virtanen has good vision and hockey sense, I have Ehlers and maybe even Nylander above him.

He'll get a call-up over Mancari if he keeps producing at this rate. So we might see him up here pretty soon since we only have 12 forwards. Unless of course, a fourth liner gets injured.

Rodin is back in the line up and scores his first AHL goal! Hopefully first of many