Brett Ritchie, why?

[Harry Lime]

Dube and Monahan were both seeing a serious uptick in the quality of their play until they were 'reunited' with Ritchie the last two games. Now they are lucky to break the 10 minute in icetime mark.

[Moneyhands23]

When BT adds Toffoli he will be in the press box

[agulati]

The other three lines are working, so Ritchie is a placeholder till we get someone, I guess.

[BigRed]

I wish the guy no harm, but we were a better team when he was out hurt. I actually think Pitlick is a better option until we can find a real upgrade. Or Gawdin. Or goddamn anyone.


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[GS Skier]

I'll post once because I certainly disgree with yet another "I hate this guy" thread. Ritchie's fine.

Role players are always part of a good team. He's a Sutter type player just like Rudzicka is. (mentioned Rudzicka's play a week ago and got crickets, now all of sudden hes being talked about) As has been said you can't teach size and Ritchie skates well, no speed ball but he can keep up at any pace. BTW who went right after Myers after the head shot on Lewis?

Rudzicka not Philips. Philips is NOT a Sutter type and never will be. Must be a lot of "small" posters with Napolean complex's who think for 2 seconds Philips will get a look.

[indes]

0 points is not fine...He is the only forward in the league to play over 20 games and register no points. I don't think there are any amount of intangibles that can overcome a stat line like his. We should be looking at players who will not drag down their line with a complete lack of skill. Mony and Dube should be helping with scoring more than they have at 5v5.

[TheScorpion]

Originally Posted by GS Skier

I'll post once because I certainly disgree with yet another "I hate this guy" thread. Ritchie's fine.

Role players are always part of a good team. He's a Sutter type player just like Rudzicka is. (mentioned Rudzicka's play a week ago and got crickets, now all of sudden hes being talked about) As has been said you can't teach size and Ritchie skates well, no speed ball but he can keep up at any pace. BTW who went right after Myers after the head shot on Lewis?

Rudzicka not Philips. Philips is NOT a Sutter type and never will be. Must be a lot of "small" posters with Napolean complex's who think for 2 seconds Philips will get a look.

Ritchie is the only forward in the entire league with zero points in more than 15 games this year. That's not fine under any circumstance. It just isn't. You have to be able to contribute in some way offensively out there and Ritchie just doesn't.

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by GS Skier

As has been said you can't teach size.

Apparently you can’t teach skill either….

[SuperMatt18]

Brett Ritchie is perfectly fine as a 12/13th forward that plays every couple games, comes in to provide some energy and throw the body around.

However on a team that already includes Lewis and Lucic in the bottom 6 he is redundant and you don't need all three of those guys in the lineup.

A trade for a top 9 forward between now and the deadline needs to be top priority to drop him out of the lineup, but with 20 games between now and the deadline I'd love to see one of Pelletier, Phillips, or Gawdin get a look in that 3rd line spot next to Dube and Monahan instead.

[Young Guns]

You sure the title of this thread shouldn't say Dillon Dube?

Ritchie was the best player on his line last night. If you take Dube's points this season and average it to Ritchie's 21 games played. Dube has a whooping 4.5 more points than Brett. Dube has been on the 2nd powerplay all season.

At least Ritchie uses his speed and creates turnovers. Throws lots of hits and beats the other team to pucks. But both players seem unable to skate and carry a puck at the same time.

I do agree Ritchie should be 12th-13th forward but really think Dube will be trade bait at deadline.

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by Young Guns

You sure the title of this thread shouldn't say Dillon Dube?

Ritchie was the best player on his line last night. If you take Dube's points this season and average it to Ritchie's 21 games played. Dube has a whooping 4.5 more points than Brett. Dube has been on the 2nd powerplay all season.

At least Ritchie uses his speed and creates turnovers. Throws lots of hits and beats the other team to pucks. But both players seem unable to skate and carry a puck at the same time.

I do agree Ritchie should be 12th-13th forward but really think Dube will be trade bait at deadline.

While Dube has struggled this year he has plenty of upside. Ritchie is what he is.

[SuperMatt18]

Dube's struggles are all pretty much finishing / on-ice shooting percentage related this year.

Kent Wilson has a great twitter thread on it here https://twitter.com/Kent_Wilson/stat...45932786675717

Moving Dube would be Bennett 2.0. He would go somewhere else, maybe get more top 6 opportunity, and then his on-ice shooting percentage would sky rocket and we'd have a thread for 5 years arguing about why he couldn't do that here.

Honestly both Dube and Monahan would benefit from playing with more of a natural playmaker...which is why I'd love to see Phillips get a look there.

Ritchie has had similar bad on-ice shooting luck TBH but with him it's more of a trend, as his career finishing impacts have been really poor his entire career outside of the one season where he scored 16 goals.

[Jason14h]

They have both been horrible and both need replacements for playoffs.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

Dube's struggles are all pretty much finishing / on-ice shooting percentage related this year.

Kent Wilson has a great twitter thread on it here https://twitter.com/Kent_Wilson/stat...45932786675717

Moving Dube would be Bennett 2.0. He would go somewhere else, maybe get more top 6 opportunity, and then his on-ice shooting percentage would sky rocket and we'd have a thread for 5 years arguing about why he couldn't do that here.

Honestly both Dube and Monahan would benefit from playing with more of a natural playmaker...which is why I'd love to see Phillips get a look there.

Ritchie has had similar bad on-ice shooting luck TBH but with him it's more of a trend, as his career finishing impacts have been really poor his entire career outside of the one season where he scored 16 goals.

If you just went with points, highest to lowest, the lines would look like this:

Gaudreau-Lindholm-Tkachuk
Mangiapane-Monahan-Coleman
Lucic-Backlund-Dube
Lewis-Ruzicka-Richardson

I find it pretty hard to not think those are better lines.

[Savvy27]

I really do not see what anybody appreciates about Ritchie's game. I do not think he plays regularly on any of the top teams in the league and definitely not in the top 9 on quality teams.

Replacing him at the TDL is an absolute no brainer and I would be stunned if the games of Dube and Monahan do not improve substantially when another good forward is added to their line.

With the apparent chemistry of Lucic and Ruzicka (and Lewis so far), the team really does seem just one forward short. Pitlick and Ritchie are not the answer.

[Young Guns]

Dube and Monahan haven't been able to score 5 on 5 all season. That's playing up and down the lineup with multiple players. But its Ritchie's fault currently for them being unable to produce? Not buying it...

[CsInMyBlood]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

If you just went with points, highest to lowest, the lines would look like this:

Gaudreau-Lindholm-Tkachuk
Mangiapane-Monahan-Coleman
Lucic-Backlund-Dube
Lewis-Ruzicka-Richardson

I find it pretty hard to not think those are better lines.

Pretty hard? These arent powerplay lines. Monahan has 7 5 on 5 points. Backlund has 13. Dube 9 and Lewis 8 have more even strength points than Sean Monahan. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Adam Ruzicka catches him soon.

[megatron]

We all realize there's a cap crunch coming up with Johnny, Tkachuk, Mangipane and Kylington coming up. The big ticket contracts to be moved to retain everyone are: Mony, Backlund and Lucic.

The obvious choice here to move Monahan. In order to do that you have to trade him or buy him out. Trading him would be preferable, but without having to add a 1st/2nd round pick or taking back another bad contract. This means his trade value has to be increased in order to trade him in some sort of hockey trade. How do you do this? Play him on the 1st PP unit (which is happening) and play him with good linemates.

Coming off his surgery, we know he cannot drive a line by himself. This is magnified playing with replacement level players. Since he has been playing better as of late, I would give him the high-ground, give him better linemates and maybe his trade value will increase so you can actually trade him.

I realize everything cannot be about Monahan, and Sutter only cares about winning games, but if you want to actually move his contract it has to have some value.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by CsInMyBlood

Pretty hard? These arent powerplay lines. Monahan has 7 5 on 5 points. Backlund has 13. Dube 9 and Lewis 8 have more even strength points than Sean Monahan. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Adam Ruzicka catches him soon.

Monahan has been playing with Lewis and Pitlick/Richardson for at least half the year. Let’s see how many points Backlund gets in that combo.

Even when you watch the recent iterations of Monahan with Dube/Lucic/Ritchie it’s clear that he still has offensive chops even strength. He’s constantly putting pucks to his linemates who then flub it.

IMO those lines make sense offensively and defensively.

[CsInMyBlood]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

Monahan has been playing with Lewis and Pitlick/Richardson for at least half the year. Let’s see how many points Backlund gets in that combo.

Even when you watch the recent iterations of Monahan with Dube/Lucic/Ritchie it’s clear that he still has offensive chops even strength. He’s constantly putting pucks to his linemates who then flub it.

IMO those lines make sense offensively and defensively.

I know you're the biggest Monahan fan come on now. You actually believe Monahan is driving offense and looking dangerous 5 on 5?

81:48 of his 5 on 5 time has been with Dube and Lucic.
72:11 with Lewis and Lucic.
66:29 with Pitlick and Dube.
44:08 with Richardson and Lewis.
42:32 with Coleman and Mangiapaine.
28:53 with Coleman and Lewis
24:40 with Mangiapaine and Dube.
18:46 with Gaudreau and Tkachuk.
17:54 with Ritchie and Dube.
14:19 with Lucic and Mangiapaine.