Quoting: Calgary13
The Bruins are my second favorite team. I know what's happening with them. Vatrano, in my opinion, is the 3rd line LW if Spooner wins the center job (which is his unless JFK proves he's already better, though I think he could benefit from a month in Providence). I don't believe I can put players in my lineup in this game unless they start with the team in real life, so I might have to put Vatrano in my lineup. If I had my way, he'd be my 13th forward. I might have to use him, so I'm not just throwing him away. All he can do is score, but he's damn good at it. If he can find ways to create his own shots, he could be a fringe top-6 player. And while I agree Spooner will likely see a lot of benching, I don't think the Bruins gave him $2.825M to sit there, especially since Beleskey is already doing that all year with a $3.9M cap hit. Beleskey is actually useless, while Spooner is at least very good on the PP; another thing to remember is that while Spooner's 5v5 play is bad, he also had to carry one/or both of Hayes and Beleskey for the past two seasons.
I don't think Beleskey can even win a job out of camp unless he scores in the rest of the games. Vatrano, Kuraly, and maybe even Schaller are ahead of him on the depth chart imo. Kuraly and Beleskey are basically the same player, but Kuraly really shined in the playoffs. He brought tons of speed and energy and really showed himself he could be a great 4th liner.
Anyways, Vatrano, while in my opinion should be the 13th forward, could really develop into a solid player that has a decent career. I just like the other players more than him, and I'm not in a rush to move him unless the return is worth it.
I highly disagree with your Beleskey / Kurally comparison. Kurally's done nothing sustained and Beleskey has a 20 goal season in 60ish games and a 35 point season for the Bruins in 2015. Kurally is totally on the outside looking in, like far, far outside and isn't fit as a 3rd liner. He had the games of his career in the playoffs, don't expect more of that. Schaller is more of a 4th liner or fringe 3rd guy like Czarnik, while Beleskey is a good 3rd liner who finishes every check and creates energy. He'll get a look this year at some point unless he gets waived. Beleskey should get a lot of time in preseason and have a longer look than anyone, but Vatrano will have a ton of games as well. Tonight they played together and didn't accomplish anything, they were pretty poor and we got spanked by Detroit who are trying to just have a competitive season.
I do agree with your opinion of Vatrano as he's really only good at shooting the puck, but I'm confused as to why you wouldn't trade him for a 3rd rounder + 3rd round drafted prospect. If you really know what he is, which is a one dimensional player, why not get some future assets and just plug in Heinen, Cehlarik and Czarnik into that spot of the 13th F? IF you need to keep Vatrano or want more coming back for him I understand that completely. I just think Spooner is so bad at wing that he's not a logical option there so that makes Vatrano the 3rd LW by default unless somehow Beleskey has like 2 hat tricks in the few preseason games left. We saw Spooner lose enough board battles and not get the puck out of the defensive zone last year to end that LW experiment. I see Spooner getting traded halfway through the year if Boston needs a defenseman.
Anyways I see Vatrano is out of my price range for my bargain shopping and I don't mind that, but I would like to know how you value Cehlarik, Heinen, Czarnik, Grzelcyk, Zboril, Lauzon and other fringe players. I don't need to know what round pick you want for each, but just maybe the 2 or 3 you value the least I might be interested in acquiring just to have a Bruins player.
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