Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperMatt18
He's been okay with Backlund and really his struggles have come away from Backlund this year when playing with some combo of Lucic/Ryan/Nordstrom
In his 33 minutes with Backlund he's 57% Corsi For, 56.5% Scoring Chances For, and 30% High Danger For (The high Danger is weird and likely was from one flurry in front of the net or something)
Away from Backlund though it's been bad:
In 12 minutes on that "4th line" he's 24% Corsi, 28% scoring chances, and 33% high danger.
- but everyone who has played with Lucic/Nordstrom/Ryan has had those issues this year.
When the lineup is healthy I think Bennett-Backlund and whoever of Dube/Mangiapane isn't on the Lindholm line will be able to make up an effective third line.
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I agree and I did mention id give the 3rd line more time to see how it goes. But I do wonder if this is more a backlund thing than a Bennett thing. Backlund always elevates his linemates posession numbers. I wouldn't be surprised if Bennett was out that backlund Mangiapane and someone like leivo could play just as well.
Of the bottom forwards not including backlund and Mangiapane as I look at them as in our top group. Bennett Ryan and lucic are by far the highest paid but Bennett is the only 1 that has trade value. Imo if you want to improve the top 6 removing him from the bottom 6 and using the cap space later could be creating more upside than cutting Nordstrom to bring up a guy like Phillips.
Trading Bennett also could give Phillips a chance with backlund if he plays well. Keeping Bennett has him playing with the same guys that are playing 75 percent of their shifts in their own end. Might not be what you want for Phillips