"Part of what we are doing at this point is making sure (our younger guys) have an opportunity to step into bigger roles.
We have some young players in the NHL who are ready to grow. We have some players who are just a little bit away from the NHL who are ready to step into NHL roles.
Seeing them continue to take steps forward is a big part of how we keep this going. Leaving them the opportunity is part of the job here.
Ultimately, it's a balancing act. We aren't in a rebuild. We aren't turning things over completely to the kids. But we do need to leave room for them to keep growing and keep assuming newer and bigger roles."
by The_Reddit_Browser
5 Comments
I love this statement.
At some point we had to look in the mirror and realize this squad wasn’t getting it done. We need to have a pipeline for our young guys to move up and we have to transition at some point before we really are stuck being forced into a total rebuild.
Svech, Aho and Jarvis are the top line. They are the best players we have and they need to step up to the plate. The team is theirs and the franchise is being gifted to them. Slavin is the leader on the back end and can keep this group going just as good as we have had it.
We now rely on our young guys to step up and prove they are worth it. We give guys like Ryan Suzuki a real look, we reward the college guys who chose to sign with us and say show us what you got.
This is gonna be a fun year and anything is possible. We still have good goaltending and defense which will keep us in the hunt. We just gotta hope for a little magic out of our young offense and I think we will see that.
Do the actions match those words though? The Canes already had Drury, Fast, Staal, Martinook, Lemieux and arguably Kotkaniemi as bottom-6 forwards. 6 of 6.
Then they signed Robinson, Carrier and Jost as all established bottom-6 forwards. 9 of 6 on 1-way deals.
Maybe they mean the one LW slot on the 2nd line? That would be disappointing to fill with a Rookie but possible I guess.
Really hope Fast recovers, I’m sure he’ll want to keep playing if at all possible but neck injuries are scary.
To me, Drury continues to trend upward. Kk we just need more from with his contract, plain and simple. They’re both young enough to be included in this plan to give young players bigger roles while our prospects can back fill or overtake them as needed IMO.
Necas is the wild card still.
Today has sucked, but at some point it needed to happen.
But it sucks…
I’m just stunned that Tulsky used the word ‘sustainable’ at least a dozen times during his media availability today, and 100% of the media and 90% of the fanbase still can’t get their fucking heads around what the team is doing and why.
They aren’t hiding it. They aren’t being secretive. It’s plain and it’s obvious, and yet half you morons are “Ahhhhhh! Guentzel!”