Banned
Joined: Jun. 2018
Posts: 19,215
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Trading Gudbranson is the dumbest thing this team can do. He's the one guy on the ice that keeps people honest. Can you imagine the **** storm that would be happening with the islanders goons if he wasn't there.
The islanders don't want to deal with that and drop gloves with him which is the ONLY thing keeping those games from getting out of control.
There is no way he is traded. His play is fine, and he brings that dimension to the team.
Not much done here actually makes the penguins better.
Eberle, doesn't fix the problem on this team. Ferland, is a decent player but he's too small to be the power forward they need.
Someone had mentioned Lawson Crouse from Arizona and frankly I think that sounds about right.
Trading Maatta and Jarry won't be that hard and you can get a decent return on both.
Especially Maatta, who even if he doesn't work out, he cost virtually nothing to buy out so someone will take that on.
Hörnqvist has a NTC so good luck with that. My feeling is they ask him to retire LTIR concussions.
Johnson has a lot more value than you realize. Go ask TB or Toronto who have virtually no physical players on their team. Either one would kill for a player who can lay the body like Johnson does right now.
There are changes coming. It starts by trusting the youth in the organization.
Drozg, Hallander, Björkqvist, are three of the big ones. they are all physical players, the kind they need.
They need to sign Nikita Pavlychev and get him into WBS so they can see what they got there. Get him on the 4th line for that physical role and let him simply be hard to play against. He doesn't need to light up goals. He just has to wear on lines and use his size for intimidation much like Chara does. Screw Sullivan and his nancy ways. They get that kid into the system and tell him play mean!
Too many people want to build this team like TB or Toronto. Look at what is happening to those teams in the playoffs. You got to be built for the physical game. It doesn't have to be the whole roster, but you need everyone capable of chipping in. We can't keep skating multiple players who are contact adverse. They have it in the youth, they have to trust it and play it and make some minor changes through FA. Nothing drastic. They are close, they just aren't there this year. But they still have a solid group that just needs a little adding to.