Quoting: mk458
Fair enough. I feel like if he's healthy for the playoffs he'll remind everyone why he's an important part of the team, but we'll see. I think his injuries have plagued him more than people realize
Quite frankly, I think what we're seeing is the realization that Kassian is a very good 4th liner and more and more like a fringe 3rd line forward. He's very much overpaid, which carries potential risk moving forward. I'm glad he got clean, and I hope he has a full recovery, but he wouldn't be long for the roster if I was in Holland's spot. Hitting is incredibly overrated, even come playoff time: only 10% of all hits in the league have a positive outcome, otherwise they're just fluff or you're banking on Kassian to injure someone.
There still exists physicality on this roster: Draisaitl is a tank, Puljujarvi is learning to weaponize his size, the trio of Nurse, Larrson, and Kulikov are punishing on the body, and all of Archibald, Khaira, and Yamamoto like to throw their asses around too.
It's simple business really: if Kassian can't perform at the dollar figure attached to his contract, then ridding the club of that expense is the best possible move. If Lavoie comes into camp this fall or next at or around 220lbs, I don't imagine all of that backside is going to be used exclusively for finesse.