Commandant

I know it was his dad, but I always like to yell "Eat another Donut Koharski" when I am at a dogs game and he's the ref.

Just because he's on wing doesn't mean DD has to be the guy driving the net or the primary goal scoring presence on his line. He can still be the distributor and play maker from the wing like a poor man's St. Louis, or like a Tanguay is the playmaker on his line with Iginla, or like a Hemsky, or a whitney, or a Gerbe, or how a number of other wingers who are the primary playmaker on their line operate. The goal isn't to change DD's offensive game but rather to limit the defensive deficiencies I talked about in another thread, specifically the cycle game problem.

Because the idea is to take the extra defensive zone responsibilities that a centre faces away from Desharnais. The idea is to shelter him from having to contain big forwards cycling the puck in his own zone. Pleks is an outstanding defender from the pivot position, DD is not.

I definitelu thought about that, the onlu issue is I'm not sure who is at LW if Cole and Gio play together. Cole really struggles at LW, and is not near the same player if you put him there. Its one of the reasons he had such a hard time in Edmonton. Only when the Oil put him at RW did he produce.

I agree with your analysis, and I think we're on the same page, I just think we are using different words. Franchise talent to me means someone you build around. My definitions: Generational talent is a crosby and there are none of those in this draft. Superstars are Malkin and Stamkos and that *might* be Yakupov but he's the only guy at that level. Gally/Grigorenko are *potentials* to be in the class of franchise players that are made up of the Toews, Thornton, the Sedins, the Getzlaf/Perrys, Rick Nash, Iginla, etc of the NHL just a step below but players you can build around.

i think he has more offence to bring as he continues to grow. Does that mean he'll score more than the 60 or so pts he'll finish with this year, next season? Probably not because the adjustment will take time. But yes I think he can have a 60+ pt season on the wing once he's comfortable there, and he's just approaching his prime years now. Of course who the centre and winger are would be important. A top 9 of DD - Plekanec - Cole Pacioretty - Grigo/gally - gionta Bourque - Eller - Leblanc Line up would be interesting.

Yeah I gotta agree with this especially Markov's value.

I definitely agree that DD is a huge part of that line with the offence. That's why I keep him. I really think you can minimize his defensive deficencies and still take advantage of his offence at wing. I also think you can use him on the PP this way. I think he's got a little more offence to bring as well.

Funny how our goalie gets mentionned as the problem in a game we lose after scoring only 1 goal and giving up 42 shots against.

I'm not the only person you've had an issue with. Says more about you than me.

The psychological impact for Markov of playing 5-10 games to finish the season will be huge and will be a big motivating factor when he finishes his summer training. Also knowing that he can play in a game, take a hit, and he's gotten past the setbacks is huge for the organization as it really colours all of our offseason plans to know that we will have a healthy Markov, capable of playing in the NHL, next season.

I'm glad the NHL decided to throw out the standings from October and November. Are they no longer part of the season? As for the rest of your post saying I have no knowledge of the game, and calling me a troll. I'm surprised the mods haven't banned you yet. All you ever do is throw out insults when people disagree with you. You bring nothing of value to this site, absolutely nothing. I might get in trouble for saying this, but I really do hope someone gets rid of you at this point. I think people here have been more than patient, but you pollute every discussion here.

Columbus is 13 pts behind the Habs. You're a Columbus fan boy to believe they are at our level.

You can be a shutdown guy and play on the second line. I think this is Pleks role going forward. A ton of teams in the league are doing this now... just look at Patrice Bergeron, Ryan Kesler, Jordan Staal, Mike Richards, Mikko Koivu, Ryan O'Reilly, and a number of others. DD can also be moved to wing, which would mean we'd still keep all three of DD, Plek, Eller.

He also scored his second career goal in his own net. The puck is like a handgrenade on his stick.

Where did you read that? Cause pretty much NONE of the scouts I read have said that. What everyone actually is saying is that the top of this draft is excellent, but that there is no depth. Everyone is saying that Yakupov is a better 1st overall player than RNH or Hall, and that the top 7 or so picks are all excellent. Its just that the guys who will be be picked at 15-25 in this draft don't look as good as the guys picked 15-20 last year; and the 2nd round isn't as good and so on. Since we are picking top 5, none of that matters. The other thing about this draft is that I'm not even convinced it has no depth. One year ago it was supposed to be the best draft overall since 2003. So whats happened to make people start saying it has no depth? The prospects have had more injuries this year than pretty much any year in history, so the viewings of them are way down, and drafting has gotten a hell of a lot harder than normal this year. The more I think about it, the more I think Trevor Timmins feels the same way. If the pick is in Timmins hands I think he'd rather have Galchenyuk. However if Roy comes into the organization he'll be pushing hard for Grigorenko.

You know one other area where Emelin is miles better than O'Byrne For all his hits Emelin has 24 PIMs O'Byrne has 47, and in there is that one fight... so more like 42. O'Byrne has put his team on the PK 9 more times than Emelin this season, and that was always an issue with this guy in Montreal.

I like Holland, and I've talked about him a little on the prospects board. His stats are fantastic, but he's also playing on a line with two overagers who are destroying the WHL. His two linemates have better stats than he does. It remains to be seen if his potential is more than a 3rd line guy. As CC has pointed out, we lack a first line winger. The big reason is that what Cammy was to bring has not been replaced. Bourque might take the place of Kostitsyn on the third line long term, but trading a first line wing for a third line wing plus a third line prospect isn't really the best move in my move. The very fact that move felt so rushed after the infamous We Play Like Losers interview makes me question it, and maybe we should have taken a step back before making this move.

Patrick Holland with a quiet night 1 assist only but it gives him 100 pts on the year. Brendan Gallagher with one goal his 40th of the season. Danny Kristo two assists to give him 40 pts in 35 games Mark MacMillan 1 goal, gives him 5 goals and 14 pts in 35 games for a pretty decent freshman year.

I don't know that we'll get an idea of what level he's at because he'll have far too much rust on him to contribute. But we'll at least know he can take a hit.

People got stupid at the deadline, a guy with proven playoff history might have been worth more than what we got in January.

white and leblanc are not centres. Both are being converted to wing. If they believed Leblanc was a centre, he wouldn't have played every game for the bulldogs at wing. As for the smurf team being the worst team ever, I'd take the 2009 team which was much smaller than this years team as being way better than this team.

Yeah. I mean the guy is a leader, who works his ass off every shift, plaus a two way game, kills penalties, goes to the front of the net despite his size and led our team in goals two years in a row. He also shows up in the playoffs. Certainly a guy worthy of fan hate, just cause he's small. Big guys like Rene Bourque are so much more valuable.

1 goal 1 assist for Beaulieu today, so he's got some cushion on that PPG thing. Steve Quailer 2 assists tonight, but his season also ends tonight as Northeastern will not make the playoffs 25 pts in 26 games for him. Now will he stay in school or go to Hamilton?

Gionta coming back helps the wings a lot, but we could use another wing too. I still say I hated that Cammy trade, he may have needed to go, but we needed to get more back than Bourque.