Bunting's on the 4th line with the Canes and had 4 goals of which 3 were from pp1

NTU

Bullet dodged.

Why assume he goes for less in TO?
I don't think you'll get Tanev, Flames are picking it up and are currently in the 2nd wild card after their win vs Vegas.
You'll probably get Zadorov eventually, my guess is the only thing holding it up is either TO can't find a 3rd team to retain on Z or TO is low balling since Zadorov made it public that he wants out

Leafs decline to add niemela to the flames trade switch him with a 3rd and it’s a done deal

lol yeah i mean the guy was just a product of how insanely good 34 is. without an allstar center he's a 40pt guy max. same situation with Nuge, Hyman, and even Drai to a lesser degree over in Edmonton

I think him being on the fourth line is more of a testament to the depth of the Canes than any thing against Bunting. He hasn't been able to produce goals at even strength because he's being centered by Jack Drury who isn't going to produce much offense

Hes behind Martinhook

Thats how not well its going

You dont put a 4.5m guy on the 4th line behind pending UFA Martinhook

Its more of a sign of Brid'Amour ruining another player

Hahaha... I mean the only reason he's behind Martinook is because Martinook only plays on the defensive shutdown line which happens to be third line and with how good that shutdown line is you do not break it up (1.33 xGA/60, 70.09 xGF%, 38.16 CA/60, 25.76 FA/60). He's producing at a better pace this year than he was last year... .59 compared to .63 p/g. Rod loves that Martinook-Staal-Fast line and for very good reason... So the fourth line is a scoring line (excluding Drury)

Fair enough

Bunts is averaging the same PPG with the Canes as he did with the Leafs. Doing it in 15 mpg, which btw is about the same mins he played in Toronto as well.

Leafs issue was letting Hyman go…not Bunts. Oh, also signing BT as GM as well.

And thats the problem.

Carolina should experiment with a 3rd line like Toronto has done.

Robertson-Domi-Jarnkrok

An all offense meets a defensive wing and a rookie whose game is coming together.

They should try Bunting-Staal-Fast as it combines different aspects that seem to work in a lot of cases

Fast is like Jarnkrok, Staal is the defense, and Bunting's the offense

Have you not been watching Knies 6 goals on 21 shots in his first NHL season so far

Lul

We dont really need either guy as for l925k we be getting some nice production.

Letting Bunting go was a pretty smart move in the end as we have been getting nice production from Knies, Robertson, Jarnkrok, etc.

first off, he is not on the same pace as he was with the leafs - he is currently on a 50 point pace.

second, almost 50% of his points are from the PP. not exactly something you can rely on all year long, and especially not in the playoffs.

third, i've watched bunting play about 20x the amount of minutes you've watched him play. believe me when i tell you there is very little skill there. the biggest part of his game was his Marchand-esque playstyle, but ever since the refs decided to unionize against him, he's been pretty much useless in fulfilling the only role he's serviceable in.

TOR ; 112 points in 161 games = 0.696 ppg (58 p)
CAR ; 12 points in 19 games = 0.632 ppg (52 p)

Math is math, and your totally right, a 6 points per year difference in pace.

I didn’t mean to upset the Bunting expert, my apologies. The Canes brought him in to be a player who could play up and down the lineup and add a net front on the PP. At 4.5m he’s producing exactly as expected.

No I haven’t, really don’t care either and agree Leafs shouldn’t have re-signed Bunts. That was never my point.

I’m happy with him on the Canes.

I don’t see how this is any different than the line he’s playing on now. Bunting-Drury-Noesen. He’s been a very good line for the past few games.

All I know is when he was here, he seemed to have good chemistry with Matthews.
I like the idea of Bunting, Bertuzzi and Domi as people who stir the pot, all playing in your top 9.

I like Bunting-Staal-Fast for the reasons that you talk about but I do have concerns with the other bottom six line. I think that it's something that Rod could tinker with if the Drury line continues to struggle to produce. You could also reunite MSF against a team like Edmonton or the Rangers

Now he’s on a better pace than Leafs…14 points in 20 games.