The Avs are a great team. But I think they have another gear that they havent hit yet. I think shuffling the lines around a bit will help them.
Landeskog-Mackinnon-Rantanen was an excellent line, but I think it would be best if the Avs split up Rantanen with Mackinnon. This is to give Mackinnon more room on the ice, and to give Rantanen more touches. Nichushkin is a really effective forechecker and will get the puck to Mackinnon. Landeskog does that to some extent, but nowhere near as good as Nuke. Putting them together would bring out the very best in both of them. In fact Mackinnon-Nichushkin had the best xGF% out of any Avs player that was paired with Mack last year. They didnt play very much together last year, but were absolutely deadly when paired together.
Burakovsky-Kadri-Rantanen will be the shooting line. They will get a ton of pucks on net and will probably dominate possession as one of the best 2nd lines in the league.
Saad-Compher-Jost is a good 3rd line. Saad is an excellent play driver, Compher and Jost are good defensively. Calvert is out, Which leaves Bellemare and Donskoi on the 4th line. Playing with 11F, 7D gives them the opportunity to get Mackinnon out for a couple extra shifts.
Toews-Makar has been a fantastic pair, however I think that pairing Makar with another 4th overall pick in Bowen Byram will make them unstoppbable. Byram-Makar has an xGF% of 92.82 which is absolutely bonkers. Yes there is a very small sample, but out of all defense pairs to play 15 mins so far this year, this pair is 1st and its not even close. The pair that is in 2nd has a xGF% of 78.38% which is still great, but not close to Byram-Makar. Toews-Makar has been really good, they rank 10th in xGF% with 70.21.
Toews-Girard. A great 2nd pair that can move the puck effectively and is good defensively. You could move Toews up to the first pair and Byram to the 2nd, I would be okay with that.
Graves-Pateryn. This a good shutdown pair. Graves did get carried by makar last year. It was a pretty big fluke imo. But hes still a serviceable defenseman, maybe not as good as the numbers showed last year. Greg Pateryn from 2016-2019 was one of the best shutdown defensemen in the league. Last year was a total mess for him. He was injured, not getting deployed properly everything that could go wrong for him went wrong. Super unlucky year last year. From what Ive seen from him so far this year, he looks to be back. I think he will be a really good addition to this Avs team. he steps into the lineup as the best defensive defenseman on the team. He should be out there defending leads, and killing penalties, its what he excels in.
EJ as the 7th defenseman is meh. Hes not very effective now. He provides a good veteran presence and brings some leadership, but his on ice play has been equivalent to a 6th-7th defenseman over the last couple years. He could be okay as a bottom pair guy, but I dont expect much more from him.
Yes, let's definitely break up one of the best lines in hockey and the second line which is starting to heat up over the last two games. Always a good idea to change things up when everything's going well.
This is, um, weird I guess. Bellemare tore up his knee last night, so that's one issue. Pateryn is on the Taxi squad and not nearly as good as Johnson, so that's another. And Rantanen is RW.
The top two lines are fine, so I see no reason to mess with them. Second line finally got a few bounces last night, which should help build some confidence.
To be fair the Sens have the cap space, and Donskoi is useful enough a player for the Sens to want him, and they have second rounders the Avs don't have.....Tierney and Tampa's (likely late) 2022 2nd for Donskoi, Graves and COL's 2022 4th maybe, something like that might work?
To be fair the Sens have the cap space, and Donskoi is useful enough a player for the Sens to want him, and they have second rounders the Avs don't have.....Tierney and Tampa's (likely late) 2022 2nd for Donskoi, Graves and COL's 2022 4th maybe, something like that might work?
This is Sakic we're talking about so I assume Ottawa retains 50% on Tierney and throws in Formenton too, lol.
Pateryn over EJ has got to be one of the worst hot takes I've seen on here. Just awful.
Stone-hands Nichuskin on the top line isn't a recipe for success either.
Splitting up the top line to give Rantanen more touches is also not really how it works. He gets more touches playing on a beast of a line that utterly dominates at 5v5.
We've also now gotten the 2nd line rolling with 2 productive games in a row (Kadri 2g 2a, Saad 2g 2a, Bura 1g 2a in the last 2 games) so let's keep that intact.
Bellemare is likely out long term so we'll have to find another solution there.
Pateryn over EJ has got to be one of the worst hot takes I've seen on here. Just awful.
Stone-hands Nichuskin on the top line isn't a recipe for success either.
Splitting up the top line to give Rantanen more touches is also not really how it works. He gets more touches playing on a beast of a line that utterly dominates at 5v5.
We've also now gotten the 2nd line rolling with 2 productive games in a row (Kadri 2g 2a, Saad 2g 2a, Bura 1g 2a in the last 2 games) so let's keep that intact.
Bellemare is likely out long term so we'll have to find another solution there.
Nichushkin in the top 6 is a massive mistake, way to many plays die on his stick, and at least imo his effectiveness goes down significantly when he is put in roll expecting him to generate offense.
As for Patteryn if he never plays again for the Avs I’m good with that, when he and Graves have been on the ice together they have been atrocious, both need to play with a guy that can move the puck and skate.
Nichushkin in the top 6 is a massive mistake, way to many plays die on his stick, and at least imo his effectiveness goes down significantly when he is put in roll expecting him to generate offense.
As for Patteryn if he never plays again for the Avs I’m good with that, when he and Graves have been on the ice together they have been atrocious, both need to play with a guy that can move the puck and skate.
The Nichuskin-Kadri-Burakovsky line worked pretty well last season, but I have to say that adding Saad to that line has made the line much more dangerous offensively, at least now that they seem to be clicking together.
Ideally Nichuskin is on the 3rd line together with a defensively strong C that we can roll out to shut down other teams top lines.
The Avs should package Donskoi and Graves for 1 forward
Thats honestly a great idea. Neither guy is as impactful as their contract pays them to be. Nor are they given a proper role on the team because its so deep
Nichushkin in the top 6 is a massive mistake, way to many plays die on his stick, and at least imo his effectiveness goes down significantly when he is put in roll expecting him to generate offense.
As for Patteryn if he never plays again for the Avs I’m good with that, when he and Graves have been on the ice together they have been atrocious, both need to play with a guy that can move the puck and skate.
This year Graves-Pateryn has a higher xGF% than Graves-Makar. Im not saying that Makar is better, obviosuly the sample size is very small. But Graves is just bad. Last year was a total fluke where he randomly became good. He overperformed a lot, and its showing now with how bad hes been.
This year Graves-Pateryn has a higher xGF% than Graves-Makar. Im not saying that Makar is better, obviosuly the sample size is very small. But Graves is just bad. Last year was a total fluke where he randomly became good. He overperformed a lot, and its showing now with how bad hes been.
Graves and Pattyrn are without a doubt the 2 worse dmen on the team. Pattyrn is sitting because of it and if the Avs were healthy Graves would be sitting for a few games.
Graves and Pattyrn are without a doubt the 2 worse dmen on the team. Pattyrn is sitting because of it and if the Avs were healthy Graves would be sitting for a few games.
Id easily take Pateryn over Johnson. But yeah Graves is bad
Id easily take Pateryn over Johnson. But yeah Graves is bad
Pateryn sucks, you obviously haven’t watched either recently. EJ can’t stay healthy and Pateryn is so bad they are playing Jacob McDonald AND Timmins instead of him.
Pateryn sucks, you obviously haven’t watched either recently. EJ can’t stay healthy and Pateryn is so bad they are playing Jacob McDonald AND Timmins instead of him.
Well it’s 20-21 and every game he has played in he sucked and was the worst dman on the ice. I could give a rip at what his stats said in 16-19 he sucks now. I mean Bednar played McDonald instead of him.
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