denisdman wrote:
I was reading a DH article about Schmaltz, and it got me thinking. Of they guys making less than $2M per, who do you like most (Bread man excluded):
1) Hartman $833k- I just love this guy. He is noticeable on almost every shift. He has grit and skill.
2) Schmaltz $925k- Toews resurgence probably doesn't happen without this guy. He seems fast and has good vision on the ice. He makes an impact in distinct spurts.
3) Darling $600k- Q should give Crawford rest more often. He is a great backup.
4) TVR $750k-Pretty solid. I trust him on the ice.
5) Panik $875k- He is doing more than I ever thought he would. He still seems to miss good chances, so he's not the best finisher, but he has a decent game.
6) Kero $667k- I'll take what he offers on the 4th line.
7) Vinnie- Well, I am not posting his salary since he's gone and sure as hell am not spelling his name. He is ok, kinda.
Hinostroza has an NHL cap hit of $717,500, though both his salary and cap hit will be considerably prorated by his AHL time. Anyway, this list leaves off a few more than Panarin. As it turns out, the majority of the roster makes under $2MM.
1. Artemi Panarin: $925,000 - enough said
2. Scott Darling: $600,000 - Second to Panarin, the most valuable under-$2MM to the team. He had a rough year last year but he's looked very good again.
3. Nick Schmaltz: $925,000 - I think Schmaltz has the highest ceiling of any of the kids, though Hartman has been quite a surprise. What he's done with and for Toews has been a revelation so far.
4. Brian Campbell: $1,500,000 - Should we even count Campbell in this? He's fallen short of expectations but we knew he wasn't going to be as good as he was with Aaron Ekblad.
5. Ryan Hartman: $832,500 - Very pleasantly surprised to see how well he's done here. Great Shaw replacement, though in points he's almost more of a Teravainen replacement.
6. Richard Panik: $875,000 - Streaky project player with lots of garbage goals, but they're still goals. Ideally you want him to be the kind of premium fourth-liner that Michael Frolik was, a high-ceiling guy with a low ceiling imposed upon him, but we have to ask more of him than that, unfortunately.
7. Trevor van Riemsdyk: $750,000 - He's recovered from being eye-poppingly awful to start the year but remains overdeployed and seems to get scored on a lot despite one of the better +/-s on the team. I'll laugh if Las Vegas treats him like a true first-pairing defenseman.
8. Michal Kempny: $700,000 - Kempny isn't as bad as Quenneville's healthy scratches have made him out to be nor is he as good as FelsMcClure's tireless advocacy made him out to be. Holes in his game, sure, but glad to have him here.
9. Gustav Forsling: $767,500 - I'm conflicted on Forsling because objectively speaking, he is a disappointment by dint of not being in Chicago any longer, but at the same time, I think he acquitted himself pretty well for a 20-year-old dman in his first year on 200'x85' ice. I hope he gets Keith-in-the-playoffs minutes down in Rockford to make plays and make mistakes and do whatever he needs to do to be a full-timer next year. I feel good about him going forward.
10. Tanner Kero: $667,500 - Satisfied with Kero. Kruger replacement.
11. Vinnie Hinostroza: $667,500 - I've never been 100% sold on Hinostroza. I can't see him as anything but a tweener. I want to be wrong.
12. Tyler Motte: $925,000 - Haven't seen much of Motte lately but I think he'll wind up being as good as Hartman. Kinda feel like he's an incomplete now, hard to rank.
13. Dennis Rasmussen : $575,000 - I'm starting to get a little down on Rasmussen, as his lack of offense (one goal and one assist in the last ten weeks/27 games) is really getting hard to gloss over. I don't think we can have Moose
and Kruger as pointless wonders in the playoffs, not when you need bottom-six scoring to take over for a cancelled-out top six, and Kruger obviously isn't going anywhere (for now).
14. Michal Rozsival: $600,000 - I have to hand it to Rozsival for coming back year after year. He's clearly finished now but I hope he can stick around as a coach or part-time instructor.
15. Jordin Tootoo: $750,000 - Awful, useless, only here because he parties with Seabrook in the offseason. Zero points. Makes Dan Carcillo look good.
16. Andrew Desjardins: $800,000 - Maybe Desjardins is a good dressing-room presence but he's been one of the worst players in the entire NHL this season. I think the only one worse has been Riley Sheahan of Detroit, who is in an unbelievable scoring drought. Send him down or out.
I left off Spencer Abbott because no one cares about a guy who played less than nine minutes for us, but I was tempted to rank him 15th ahead of Tootoo and Desjardins because at least his less than nine minutes didn't take wins away from us like those two schmucks did.
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Molly Lambert wrote:
The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.