I Ranger

Vegas not taking Dumba.

Vegas' expansion draft was set up for them to succeed right a way with most teams unable to protect all the players they would have wanted to keep whereas in previous expansion drafts (such as the year the Wild came in) the teams were left drafting from the scraps other teams didn't want. Hence the reason you never heard of the majority of the guys on those initial rosters. The NHL made sure this expansion team wasn't a dumpster fire out of the gates.

It was Knight, Kristo, Nelson not Rowney.

I have two and I don't think I will be able to make so mine are most likely available.

Not to mention Gornall has to greatly regret his hasty decision as he would have seen plenty of ice time based on the lineups we were consistently sending out the second half of the season.

100% agree. He works hard but has horrendous hands therefore should not play on a scoring line. His assets are to use his size and speed for puck retrieval.

As you can see by the lineup that we sent out the vast majority of the second half, these are the type of players the head man prefers apparently. As has been stated on this board numerous times, when an offensively challenged team sits three pretty skilled forwards (Hoff, Adams, Yon) for a slow footed defensive defenseman at forward something is wrong. Offensive skilled forwards had extremely short leashes whereas our low-skilled grinder type forwards had miles. To me Smith is a great example. He had two or three good weekends in a row in November-December which bought him a regular lineup spot the rest of the year even though he did basically nothing in the second half.

I really couldn't figure out why Adams had such a short leash yet Kawaguchi was put out there every night. Yes Kawaguchi came on in the second half but all the things describing Adams (not strong, defensive liability) all describe Kawaguchi as well. I had Adams as the much better player in the first half. A stiff breeze could knock Guch off the puck and his skating is suspect at best.

This I couldn't agree with more but I've said I don't like our lineup decisions so often I'm beating a dead horse. I would take a line of Adams-Hoff-Yon (who are our healthy scratches) over at least one if not two of our current lines. Unfortunately or I guess fortunately since we just won two games in a row I don't see any lineup changes moving forward.

It's absolutely insane for a team as offensively challenged as this one to suit up a slow footed d-man at forward over three healthy forwards. We don't need two grinder lines. One is plenty!

I've said it for a while now that I haven't been a fan of the lineup decisions the coaching staff has been making.

Are we certain Hain is coming in for sure next year? His stock has really fallen in the last year and it wouldn't hurt to have him play a year in the USHL after his year with the NTDP.

Yes correct he was brought in as a D-man.

Gaarder and Pattyn were along with Senkbeil. All walk-ons in a year in which we lost JT Miller in July or August. It's hard to believe that team won the Final Five playing with 11 forwards the last two months of the year with 3 being walk-ons in Gaarder, Pattyn and Senkbeil and a fourth being a d-man in Joe Gleason.

Agree to disagree. In my opinion, he is our 14th forward and it's not close. The puck is a hot potato on his stick and his skating is atrocious. Slowest forward I may have ever seen play at UND.