Quoting: JayTea
Where would you play him? Down the right side you have Fiala, Zucc, Kunin and Hartman. Hartman is a 4th liner and cheaper, so not worth swapping them. You can argue Kassian is currently better than Kunin, but Kunin is still developing, younger, and can play center in a pinch. Given their lack of center depth, moving Kunin to bring in Kassian is short sighted. Zucc isn't going anywhere and Fiala is obviously not going anywhere. There's no logical place to play Kassian.
You could try him on the left side, but again, Parise, Kaprizov, Greenway, Foligno, and Donato are your options to move there. Donato is probably gone this offseason since Guerin admitted he deserved better and there just isn't a spot for him. Parise isn't going anywhere, Kaprizov will get a shot in the top 6 so do you trade Foligno or Greenway to play Kassian on his offside? Seems silly to me.
I like truculence...a lot...especially when it creates balance to a line, or a team.
You make great points, as always...and it’s clear adding Kassian to the lineup is challenging. In my defense, i did say, “ if they moved a couple wings...”. This is definitely the challenging part. The obvious one, as you mentioned, is Donato. Greenway is a player i would absolutely move...but only for a return worthy of his potential (another challenging endeavor). And of course there are Zuccarello and Parise... trading either or both is almost impossible, but I would trade both, even if it meant a step backwards next year to make giant leaps in a year or two. I know, I know...almost zero chance...
Anyway, I desperately want a Jake Virtanen, a Josh Anderson, a Zach Kassian type player or two in the lineup every night to create balance, protect the skilled guys, and to forecheck the crap out of opposing defensemen.
Who are some left-shot Foligno types I should add to my list?
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