twabby
Registered User
- Mar 9, 2010
- 13,840
- 14,864
IMO the dilemma going forward is properly balancing the need for fresh blood and energy with giving some players the benefit of the doubt that they'll come back hungrier and better after a longer summer. That goes mostly for Holtby & Niskanen...and I don't know how that balances out altogether. Maybe if Samsonov has a big playoff run it becomes easier to turn it over to him. Niskanen is still a guy that plays an awful lot of minutes and Jensen didn't begin to look like an equal replacement. But Niskanen has also probably peaked as a player. Beware the downswing. They're going to need better, faster and more effective depth and it's not going to be easy filling the team out in the short-term. Mahoney needs to pick it up again.
I think the downswing is in full effect with Niskanen, unfortunately. It may have been prompted by the injury he sustained last year but either way it's not reasonable to assume any sort of bounceback year from him. Not saying they should look to get rid of him, but I think if they are looking to compete they are going to need to start reducing Niskanen's minutes, preferably using him in a similar role as Orpik has been the past few seasons. I think it's pretty clear after this series that Orlov is still capable of bringing it, but he's certainly not capable of carrying Niskanen. Not sure where that leaves Jensen because as you mentioned he was slightly disappointing and I'm not sure he can be counted on in a top-4 role.
I have no idea what to do with Holtby. It's great to have a guy who is never injured and you know is capable of playing 60+ games a season if needed, but despite a good postseason last year he's had disappointing postseasons this year and in 2017, and his past two regular seasons have been average at best. You obviously sign him if a good deal is there but if he's looking for a 7 or 8 year deal it's going to be tough to justify it. Ideally this is why they decided to draft Samsonov so they could avoid overpaying for a 30 year old goalie but I never really know how to project goaltenders, even if they are very good in the AHL (and Samsonov by all accounts has been great after a slow start).