Use caution with Panarin
Jackets’ starmay command top dollar
We have seen enough of this Bruins’ team to come to the conclusion that it needs and, yes, deserves some help from GM Don Sweeney by the trade deadline in two weeks, despite a few troubling losses in the last couple of weeks. A legitimate, grown-up top six wing and/ or a third line center could do a lot for this team.
But should Sweeney approach the deadline with an all-in, future-be-damned approach that it would seem to take to bring in an Artemi Panarin? Well, apply the brakes on that one for just a second, please. If the dynamic Russian can be procured for a first round pick and the right two prospects, then by all means go for it. But if Panarin is strictly a rental, and so far there’s been no indication that he doesn’t plan to test the free agent waters in July (Panarin changed agents late last week, the significance of which is not yet known), a few prospects need to be off limits.
Who should be the nonstarter prospects in any Panarin rental talks? There are three. The first is Urho Vaakanainen. The B’s 2017 first round pick, a left-shot defenseman, has first pairing potential and can play either side. He’s seen limited playing time this year because of a concussion that kept him out for two months and then he was with Team Finland for the World Juniors during the holidays. But he’s got eight assists in 13 games and looked like a player who was ready to deliver on his promise in rookie camp and in training camp. With Zdeno Chara turning 42 next month and Torey Krug’s future uncertain after next season, it would not be wise move the smooth skating Finn.
The second is Ryan Donato. I realize the shine on this bright new toy might have dimmed for a lot of people with the way this season has gone for him. The physical parts as the game as well as the small details are lacking, as they were for Danton Heinen in his first pro season. But those can be taught and improved upon, as Heinen has shown. It is much harder to teach Donato’s natural skill level. For all the warts in his young game that became visible, Donato is still one of the few young Black and Gold hands who can simply shoot it past the goalie from midcircle without any interference in front. In fact, he might be the only one.
The third is center Jack Studnicka. While he showed he wasn’t quite ready for pro hockey in training camp, he looks to these eyes to have the best combination of skill and competitiveness of their young pivot prospects.
But that still leaves some decent prospects from which Columbus can choose — defensemen Jeremy Lauzon and Connor Clifton; centers Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson or Trent Frederic (the B’s could only stand to lose one), wings Ryan Fitzgerald and Zach Zenyshyn (the 2015 first rounder who is starting to show signs of life). They could also dangle one of their amateur goalie prospects Kyle Keyser or Jeremy Swayman.
And for the record, Charlie McAvoy and Jake DeBrusk are not prospects, they are NHL players and the loss of either of them would only create another hole on the roster.
If for some unforeseen reason Sweeney gets an indication that there would be a good shot of signing Panarin long-term, then Donato, Vaakanainen or Studnicka would have to be on the table. How they would fit Panarin’s surely high salary demands is another question, but the B’s were one of the few teams to make it to John Tavares’ bargaining table last summer so they must have some plan in place to shed salary if a similar opportunity to add a Grade A talent in his prime presented itself again.
But if the B’s find themselves in a bidding war for a Panarin rental, then it would be best to look elsewhere. And with Mark Stone, Ryan Dzingel, Matt Duchene, Wayne Simmonds, Michael Ferland, Artem Anisimov and Brayden Schenn all possibly available, they should be able to improve themselves without raiding the crops too badly.
Shaken Leaf
Even though Mitch Marner’s agent tried to walk back his sabre-rattling quotes in the Toronto Star in the wake of the Auston Matthews signing, the feeling here is that Marner’s agent Darren Ferris has a reason to be agitated if the Maple Leafs have been offering his client anything significantly lower than the massive five-year, $58.17 million deal GM Kyle Dubas handed Matthews last week.
I can understand that a strong, goal-scoring No. 1 center is usually placed above a smallish, play-making wing in the pay hierarchy. But to these eyes, Marner is consistently the more dangerous player. Wasn’t it less than a year ago that coach Mike Babcock desperately tried to shield Matthews from the Patrice Bergeron line, leading to an underwhelming 1-1-2 performance in the seven-game series? Now, some of that is on Babcock and being a little overprotective of his star – the one goal Matthews did score in the series came against the Bergeron line – Matthews has disappeared at times against the double-whammy of Bergeron and Zdeno Chara, despite having 2-6-8 totals in seven regular season games against the B’s. Matthews is a great, young player and he’ll get over the hump one day, but I haven’t seen it yet.
Against Marner, howeer, the B’s have had no answers. In 12 regular season games, the speedy wing has 5-13-18 totals and had 2-7-9 in the last April’s series. His speed has given them fits. And he deserves every penny that Matthews received.
Maybe that’s a typically provincial, Boston view of things. But these two teams could well be battling in the playoffs for years to come, so its not a bad view to consider.
Wheels falling?
Are the wheels falling off the Sabres’ wagon yet again? When they won 10 straight earlier in the season, the Sabres looked like a lock for the playoffs. But when they lost in overtime to Carolina on Thursday, they remained four points out of the second wildcard spot (seven behind the second wildcard Bruins going into the weekend) and the Hurricanes jumped over them in the standings by a point. After the game, forward Sam Reinhart had this beauty of a quote.
“We can’t expect to win hockey games, 6-5, 7-6,” Reinhart said. “We need more from our goalies and we need it from the start of hockey games. It’s frustrating.”
The quote was so raw, Reinhart had to issue a serious mea culpa on Friday and, to his credit, he accepted the blame instead of deflecting it. He also believably said he meant to indict the whole team defense.
Still, the Sabres were 3-6-1 in their previous 10 going into Saturday’s game and another DNQ was looking like a distinct possibility.
Final thought: Apparently, Claude Julien can still coach in the new go-go NHL. And he doesn’t hate the kids!