The fact that you have Gardiner and Fleury not in the lineup , that is the depth

Deal.

And it finally gives them a reason to bench Fleury. 0 points in 22 games with a -4 on one of the top teams.

We'll give you Butcher or Vatanen

Give us Butcher.

Re-signing can no longer be an incentive + I would rather keep Fleury and Gardiner in than get Oleksiak

Why is Aho on the 3rd Line?

Gards has played 1 game in the last 8 due to injury.

Canes don’t number their top 3 lines

You’ve missed the point

Don’t care who your depth defenseman of choice is...the point is that is the direction to add. No need to spend to add forwards.

Want Gusev too?

Hard pass

Sorry to quote this twice...

Last nights game, the Canes listed Foegele-Martinook-McGinn as the 1st line. So, that is your answer.

I know Rod likes to spread the wealth in his lines. But this is getting a bit out of hand.

Canes are having fun trolling everyone.

Everyone listed in the top 3 lines last night played between 14-18 mins.

I think Rod fills out his lineup card based in the order he thinks up the line combos.

Carolina do NOT need depth defense. That is just a lie. Even Joakim Ryan is NHL calibre.

Carolina's major need is actually more forward depth, which shows you how good the team is. a 3LW would be ideal, and maybe an extra top 6 forward to play while Teuvo is out, that pushes McGinn down to the 4th when Teravainen comes back and spread the scoring around.

Defense 1-8
Hamilton
Slavin
Pesce
Gardiner
Bean
Skjei
Fleury
Ryan

Oleksiak is not an improvement on any of them (MAYBE Joakim Ryan)

Thanks for showing me the defensive depth chart, I must have been confused. Gardiner has missed the last 7 out of 8 with a back injury, which he has already had at least one surgery on. The point is you are one injury away from AHL level two-way contract guys being forced to play 12-15 mins per night.

Additionally, my point is I’m seeing a ton of Canes posts sending out defensive players (like Skjei) for a forward. That is a bad move IMO.

Moving Skjei out when Gardiner is back is the idea. Didn't think that would need explaining. Also, someone like Ryan, or Keane are better than AHL level guys like you make them out to be. Ryan is a capable filler and Keane is one of the most underrated prospects in the organisation. There's no need to make a stupid move to trade for a D man when you have this kind of depth. In fact, I could even understand moving Skjei in the absence of Gardiner to give Bean top 4 ice time, and using Ryan as a stop gap with Fleury. Forward moves are still the most helpful to the team.

So trading a 3rd round pick for a capable NHL 3rd pairing defenseman as depth is stupid, but trading a top 4 defenseman in Skjei for forward depth isn’t?

Either way - Gardiner is on waivers. Safe to not be counting on him for a while. Sounds like he’s out for a while.

Skjei is not a top 4 D man. He is a 3rd pairing D man who makes 5 mil so you move him for cap space and depth.

Moving a 3rd for a 7th defenseman is stupid when you can claim them on waivers.

Gardiner sounds like they want to move his cap hit for a forward move.

Oh wise one - pls tell me which forward they will trade for.

BTW - like it or not, Skjei is a very capable defensive defenseman in a top 4 role. Great penalty killer and has paired quite well with Pesce this year.

Can’t wait to hear the next post...

Idfk, my crystal ball says "Hey, get a life", so I'm waiting for my new one to arrive.

Skjei is not a top 4 defenseman. Defensively he is a travisty and gets bailed out by Pesce big time. His redeeming factor is his offense, but Gardiner was better. The way to make the top 4 work would be to put Bean on the 2nd pair with Pesce and put Skjei with Fleury.

You had me at Skjei’s “redeeming factor is his offense”

That shows you how bad he is. I'll link Natural stat trick below. His best asset is his offense and that is comical.

https://www.naturalstattrick.com/playerteams.php?fromseason=20202021&thruseason=20202021&stype=2&sit=5v5&score=all&stdoi=oi&rate=n&team=CAR&pos=S&loc=B&toi=100&gpfilt=none&fd=&td=&tgp=410&lines=single&draftteam=ALL

Nothing on NST shows me Skjei isn’t a top 4 dman. All it shows me is that the Canes treat Skjei/Pesce as a shutdown pairing and use them heavily in defensive zone start situations. If HCRBA trusts Skjei in the top 4 - who am I to question.

If Fleury isn’t going to play fast and physical like he did in the Bubble, then he needs to be watching and they need to find a better partner for Bean.