what is it about NY hockey coaches and their love of absolutely burying any young talent their team might have???

Wahlstrom was getting 12:10 a night this year before getting hurt - he had 2 games out of 35 where he was on ice for more than 15 minutes (which I'd still say is more 2nd line minutes than 1st line). It's hard to say he'd obviously keep up his per 60 numbers with more TOI, but he clearly hasn't been getting top minutes on this team.

1st line meaning with Barzy and a lot of O-zone starts

Right bc points is a great way to measure a player’s success.
Also he most certainly was on the 1st line he’s played with barzal all year

@db1899
I’m not going to quote every post so I’ll address them all here.
Pass to Barzy - 1 nice pass a year ago. He looked lost this year.
Pass to JG - literally every single AHL caliber player makes that pass.
Pass to Parise - this one was ok, nothing special but what makes it better is that this is supposed to be his highlight.
Pass to Aho - this one might be an easier pass than the one to JGP

Using a combination of analytics and points is a great way to measure success. 2 points per 60 is the benchmark for a top 6 forward, Wahlstrom also has the best GF% on the team and had one of the best defensive impacts. There’s really aren’t any stats you could pull up that can prove he wasn’t one of their better forwards.

You don’t understand what playing 1st line means. He averaged bottom 6 minutes , that’s the indicator of what role he was in.

Still waiting for you to prove he’s a below average playmaker.

that's the thing - Barzal gets nearly 19 minutes of ice time per night and Wahlstrom was getting barely 12. If Wahlstrom's scoring at a 35-40 point pace getting 12 minutes a night with Barzal, wouldn't it be worth seeing if it extrapolates out to 55-60 points if you give him the same amount of ice time?

Just because Wahlstrom spent a lot of his TOI with Barzal doesn't necessarily mean he was getting 1st line minutes. He was getting literally the same amount of time every night that Cal Clutterbuck was getting - that's the point that I'm trying to make. He's clearly showing offensive promise by making the most of his limited ice time, so when he's healthy, why wouldn't you try and give him *more* ice time to see if that production scales up?

ironic how you bring up IQ when you talk about hockey like you've never watched a game before. You lack the ability to talk about hockey objectively, these are all your opinions, nothing you've said is true.

"He looks lost" - prove it than! You talk like a 40 YO who lives in his moms basement.


Wahlstrom has been their 2nd best winger this season and there isn't a close 2nd

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I remember when Nashville fans wanted tolvanen traded because he couldn't put up 50 pts in a 4th line role. Now he's getting 2nd line minutes on one of the better teams in the league and thriving

Am I right!! Our THIRD LINE is our most productive (Kid line)

AND ITS STILL THE THIRD LINE

I'm pretty sure we've both expressed our annoyance at this, but I still feel that a big reason Trotz was let go was because he was still giving Wahlstrom 9 mintues a night when the team was completely out of playoff range. Those games don't matter! Give Josh Bailey a night off and let the kid skate and see what you got, every team in every single sport gives the backups & prospects some run when they're playing out the string!!

The biggest shock to me was when Lambert came out of the gate and still refused to give him more than 12-13 a night, even after he put up 4 points in the first 2 games of the year. This kid needs a damn break to go his way.

a lot of players with his skillset get treated the same way and they usually break out eventually, whether its on the same or different team (tolvanen, Tippett, Nino niedereieter, sprong, vrana, burakovsky)

Well 1st of all barzal plays on the PP and wahly doesnt. But regardless of how many minutes he’s getting they’re 1st line quality minutes. Cal plays 4th line quality minutes.

Literally every single player on that list (with the exception of tolvanen bc I just don’t know about him) is a significantly better skater than 26. And what do you mean breakout? Nino was playing with 4th liners in NY not barzal quality players. Vrana passed through waivers and is in the AHL. Tolvanen? If you’re going to count a 16 game sample in SEA than you should just as highly value his 13 game sample in NSH this year.

It’s almost like every coach doesn’t want to play him yet mr. dannibalcorpse on CF knows better.

1st line role would require PP time...Wahlstrom doesn't get 1st line quality minutes, most of his shifts are on the fly or in the neutral zone. His role is actually harder than most because he doesn't get a lot of time to produce yet he's still one of the teams most efficient producers.

Wahlstrom is not on a 1st line role, not by quality of teammates or ice time. There is no debating this

actually it's you who thinks he knows better - you speak like a true peasant. All opinions, no facts to back it up

Vrana has been one of the best 5v5 goal scorers in the NHL over the past 3 seasons, just because hes fallen out of favor with the redwings doesn't mean he isn't a great player. He broke out, he's an elite goal scorer.

Tolvanen has always played well in limited minutes with Nashville, he was just buried by his coaches for no reason. He has always been this type of player, he's just producing more because he is getting more ice time.

Wahlstrom's skating hasn't held him back because he still consistently gets shots off from the dangerous spots on the ice. Kieffer bellows skating held him back because he wasn't able to get his shot off from high and mid danger spots.

Barzal averages 15:16 of 5v5 TOI per game and Wahlstrom averaged only 11:05 before getting hurt. He hasn't played a minute in 2023 and he's still 9th on the team in scoring. The only forwards on the team scoring at a better points per game rate than him are Barzal, Nelson, Lee, Pageau, & Palmieri. I don't know how many different ways I can show that he's producing at a top-6 pace despite getting less time every night than Hudson friggin Fasching is getting, and how it makes little sense that a team that has had as much trouble generating offense as the Islanders just keeps putting the Josh Baileys of the world in the lineup above him.



He's done very good work when he's on the ice. There's no reason to not give him more of a chance when he's healthy, unless you'd rather keep rolling out Josh Bailey to aimlessly skate around while Barzal & Horvat try and drag some sort of offense out of this team?

and obviously the solution is just to walk on from him and put some random 5th round pick on the top line instead, of course. because I'm sure Wahlstrom's treatment has nothing to do with the bizarre jerking around this team does with its prospects...what's that? I'm hearing that Dufour actually got into an NHL game this year and was on the ice for 7 minutes and didn't leave the bench in the 3rd period? Oh, that's weird!

But I thought pageau and Palmieri produce at a 4th line rate? So if they’re producing better than wahly doesn’t that mean that he also produces at a 4th line rate??????

What about my comment wasn’t fact

Random 5th round pick. I’m just trying to have a good faith discussion but it seems you’re not interested

Dufour had great numbers in his overage season in the Q and has put up good numbers in his first AHL season. Is there potential there? Sure, the fact that he's already played an NHL game puts him ahead of most of the rest of history's 5th rounders. But dumping a guy who's been one of the most productive players on a per-minute basis for him? Dumping a guy who's proven that he can play at the NHL level for a guy who hasn't, then sticking that guy on the top line, just seems like a recipe for disaster.

guy accuses me of not having a good faith conversation and then puts words in my mouth, pot meet kettle