Quoting: wabit
He muffed a puck last game, but his hands are decent overall. Kap/Zucc and Boldy lines have both been better with Steel than without.
1 skill play a game, no more, no less Freddy G. Dewar has no o-zone skills except but decent speed, decent PKer. Hartman has a shot, but can't pass to save his life, and does stupid things. This is just picking the least bad of the bunch, and this year it's Steel. Steel needs to shoot more instead of trying to make that extra pass (a la Granny).
Any skill that is added to Boldy's line is immediately subtracted by adding the blackhole that is Rossi.
Boldy needs to be put with Greenway and JEE. There are a lot of wide open nets for Boldy to shank his shots on, rather than Foligno shanking his shots or not being a step too slow to get to the puck. The coach is too stubborn headed to try out different line combos when things aren't working.
Overall I agree, the GREEF line needs to be split up as we are wasting EKs abilities but basically playing mostly Def rather than playing 200 ft with KK and Zucc. Steel is a decent 3rd line C but doesn't have enough skill to play with KK and Zucc -- his hands are ROCKS! Essentially we are wasting the skill of our top line.
Boldy is getting the short end of the stick here, no one to really play with and has to basically produce on his skill alone, but its harder when you don't have elite speed. Getting a compliment for him is priority #1.
Greenway is noticeable out there (hard shot, size while holding/protecting the puck, speed once he gets going), but doesn't produce for the amount of chances he gets and take tumbles a lot because of his skating is clunky. I feel Greeway will be better off being traded and letting someone cheaper (Duhaime) take his spot.
IMO Freddy G is significant better than Steel and it not even close -- better speed, better hands, plays physical and better defensively. You could use him between any combo Foligno, Greenway, Duhaime and you'd create a cheaper GREEF line that can focus mostly on D and let the two scoring lines be scoring lines. And if you let go of Greenway you could add Beckman to this mix for a little more skill/scoring ability.
Hartman just doesn't have it this year and his chemistry is not right with whatever lineup Deano throws out. Hartman has trade value to many cap strapped teams due to him being under control for a small number through next year.
Dewer and Shaw need to play with someone with size and their speed/grit work, but you can see how much more confidence and fire they picked up with Reavo on their wing -- can be the same thing with Foligno.