Canucklehead73 Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 How is Miller a third line center? Horvat is too good to be a third line guy too... Most likely scenario is Pettersson Plays wing or splits FO duties Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigTramFan Posted April 20, 2021 Author Share Posted April 20, 2021 3 hours ago, Canucklehead73 said: How is Miller a third line center? Horvat is too good to be a third line guy too... Most likely scenario is Pettersson Plays wing or splits FO duties In the OP I suggested that there may not be a very good 3C available on the market right now. So perhaps the Canucks should consider rolling 3 equal top 9 lines, each centred by EP40, Horvat and Miller. Effectively no 3rd line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Provost Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 5 hours ago, Canucklehead73 said: How is Miller a third line center? Horvat is too good to be a third line guy too... Most likely scenario is Pettersson Plays wing or splits FO duties Well Miller was a bottom 6 guy on Tampa. The actual contending teams have at least one top 6 guy playing down the roster giving them depth. Was Kessel really a 3rd liner when he moved to Pittsburgh? Line numbering is a little arbitrary. Is Miller really a 3rd liner if he gets fewer 5v5 minutes but is top 6 minutes amongst forwards on the team because he plays the 1st unit PP and some PK? Hoglander could ostensibly play on a 2nd line with Horvat but get fewer minutes than alone 3rd like guys because he is only on PP2. There could absolutely be a case to be made for having a 3rd line with Pearson and Miller on it if we could find/develop another couple wingers. Same as there could be a case to have Tryamkin play with Hughes next season which is technically in the top 4... but be 5th-6th in ice time amongst the D because of special teams. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigTramFan Posted April 20, 2021 Author Share Posted April 20, 2021 On 4/18/2021 at 4:57 PM, mll said: Coleman turns 30 in November. Benning says the team will be truly competitive in 2 years. Feels like the wrong age group. During the next 2 years the team needs to find / develop players who will be ready by the opening of that window. If you fill the roster with vets, it’s not going to give that much of an opportunity to these younger players - eg similar to this season with Juolevi or MacEwen. Benning says they were so eager to sign Pearson because they will be younger next season. It will be interesting to see which way JB goes on this one. There are now very limited UFA options for a good 3C or a decent top 9 winger in the age range of 28 or less. The only guys I can see that might fit these criteria are Wennberg, Armia, McGinn. All other younger UFAs would not likely be good enough. Wennberg would be great, but I think he, Armia and McGinn will be resigned before reaching free agency. So if JB doesn't go with one of those guys, he's either going to have to go for an older UFA (29+ years, including Sutter as an option), trade for a younger 3C/top 9F, or hope our young guys step up to that role. Trading for one won't be easy because we don't really have much in the way of excess players with trade value. This is probably why my ideas keep circling back to TBL because they have good players that they absolutely cannot hold onto next season, and so there must be a good chance of getting them cheap! For example (and please don't get too caught up on this it's just an example), taking on Johnson + Colton for future considerations. This way we get a promising young centre in Colton, at the cost of 3 years of Johnson at $5m to do so (and yes this is quite do-able from a cap pov). Johnson will probably still be useful for his remaining 3 contracted years and can play a role as 3C or 2RW in the immediate future. If you have watched Colton you will know that he could step straight into the 3rd or 4th line C role, and has potential as a 2C down the road. It feels more likely that JB resigns Sutter for 1 year to "hold the fort" and then hopes that one or two of our prospects progress quickly into top 9 roles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canucklehead73 Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 17 hours ago, Provost said: Well Miller was a bottom 6 guy on Tampa. The actual contending teams have at least one top 6 guy playing down the roster giving them depth. Was Kessel really a 3rd liner when he moved to Pittsburgh? Line numbering is a little arbitrary. Is Miller really a 3rd liner if he gets fewer 5v5 minutes but is top 6 minutes amongst forwards on the team because he plays the 1st unit PP and some PK? Hoglander could ostensibly play on a 2nd line with Horvat but get fewer minutes than alone 3rd like guys because he is only on PP2. There could absolutely be a case to be made for having a 3rd line with Pearson and Miller on it if we could find/develop another couple wingers. Same as there could be a case to have Tryamkin play with Hughes next season which is technically in the top 4... but be 5th-6th in ice time amongst the D because of special teams. Well I wasn't really inferring ice time as I do not really number lines either, but I believe in situational opportunities that you need to take advantage of, which dictate what players you put on the ice at a given time... I mean if you aren't going to play your best players when the chips are down you are not playing to win imho and that goes for both ends of the ice respectively. Even if you take the example you gave of possibly having 6 good wingers for 3 good lines, will they all be good at defending in a critical defensive zone faceoff situation or penalty kill situation etc etc... Like I said the best players for each situation opportunity... just my two cents on spreading out the offensive talent we have currently Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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