The Greek God Line
(Jim Slater/Chris Thorburn/Eric Boulton)
I'm gonna review these guys as a unit, because they've been together since what seems like the Carter administration.
Interesting stat:
07-08 Point Total: 40
08-09 Point Total (Thus Far): 34
That's exciting.
Excluding his fighting majors, Boults has racked up about 32 min in minors - That number could stand to come down. Slates & Thor are both big bodies with decent hands, and all three seem to be taking pretty well to head coach Johnny A's system.
Verdict: Stay.
The D
Ron Hainsey - Love him. Solid human being. Stay.
Nic Havelid - UFA this summer; getting older; lost a step or two; PIMs starting to climb; Toby seems to be doing pretty well, let him Go. The Isles always like picking up our slop.... wait, nevermind.
Mathieu Schnieder - No one is a bigger Schnieder fan than me (a good hockey-playing jewish boy from New York, what's not to love?). But, man, those PIMs are killing us. I'd like to keep him around to assist Hainsey at the kid's table, but his real value is in what he can fetch us at the deadline from a desparate bubble team. Go. Sad face.
Tobias Enstrom - AKA "The Future, Chpt. 1". Stay.
Zach Bogosian - "The Future, Chpt. 2" Stay.
As a matter of fact, the only other D-man that really needs to go....
Garnet Exelby. Yes, he's fun. Yes, ladies love him. Yes, he's an all-around fan favorite. But he hasn't been the same since the concussions. And his positioning... um, less than stellar. We need to ship him while he's got some value.
There. That's the end of that. I learned a bunch. Another shutdown D-man would be nice. Should Pev's not be the answer long-term, Andy McDonald is a UFA. Let's throw some of that unused Campbell money at him....
Then again, ask me next week, and this all could change.
I love hockey.
