Re: Last keeper - Pulju, Glass, or Hronek
Originally Posted by
The Hitchhiker
Hey y'all, I have one more rookie spot to fill with one of Puljujarvi, Hronek, or Glass. My other rookie keepers are Makar, Kakko, Kaprizov, and Shesterkin. Players are rookie eligible till they hit 170 games played. We have unlimited moves we can make to bring rookies up into our daily lineup. Pulju seems to be a risk/reward type player and will be an expiring rookie in 31 games, at which point I bring him up to stay on full-time or drop him if he hasn't panned out (again) in Edmonton. Glass seems to have a lower ceiling but safer floor than Pulju. Glass may see top 6 minutes in LV this year. And I can keep him as a rookie all year (and part of next year). My concern is that I also have Stone as a veteran keeper and last year it seemed as though I sat Glass (C,RW) a lot because Stone is also listed as RW and VGK played very seldom on off-nights, and my Center position is already pretty deep with Eichel and Point (my other veteran keepers). Hronek to me seems like the safest bet. He has abut 60 games left as a rookie, and given the shortened season this year, he should maintain rookie status all year. Plus, he plays D (always can use more solid D depth) and he could score roughly the same as Pulju or Glass from the D position (40ish point pace over 82 game season) unless Pulju or Glass really find their groove and spot in the top 6 of their respective teams. Who would you keep?
It really depends on what your plan is for next season.
If you're not really planning on competing right away, and looking more towards building for the season after and long term, then I would say Cody Glass is your choice. He will be guaranteed to still be a rookie past this season, and has an outside chance of being a rookie through next season. But he's probably the one of the three who will get the least opportunity as Vegas is fully in win now mode, and will likely want to take him more slowly into the lineup to ensure he can develop properly as a long term option for them up the middle.
Hronek seems to be the safe choice of the three. He'll get the most guaranteed opportunity, and will be a top option for a team that is largely devoid of talent on the backend currently. You take him if you want to play it a bit more safe in your keeper strategy, and leave your swing for the fence picks to the later rounds of your draft.
Puljujarvi is your risk/reward pick. He's going to get opportunity, but it's not nearly as guaranteed as Hronek's, since Hronek has established himself in the NHL. However, Edmonton also has a distinct lack of competition on the wing, which ensures he's not going to be on too short of a leash. He's going to get opportunity, and it is in the best interest of the team to give him lots of chance to develop into a long term option for them. Plus, despite the early career difficulty he faced, he is still young (he's only 22), does still have pedigree, and his recent play in Liiga were encouraging (top 5 last year in scoring and goals). What's really intriguing, is his goal scoring prowess that he has shown in Liiga. He took an ENORMOUS amount of shots last season, has continued that trend, and is scoring at a good rate. The opportunity he has with Edmonton playing on either McDavid's wing or the second line could be pretty sweet. But it is a big risk that he takes that step.
It all depends on your goal for next season, your roster makeup, and your willingness to risk.
Hronek is the safe short term option, Glass is the safer long term option, and Puljujarvi is the swing for the fence pick. Without knowing your particular roster and situation, it's really up to you which road you want to go down.
14T BiWeekly H2H. 4 C/RW/LW, 6 D, 2 G
Cats:G(3), A(1.5), PIM(0.2), PPP(1), SOG(0.2), GWG(1), SHP(2), Hits(0.3), BkS(0.4). W(2), SO(2), OTL(0.5), SV(0.2), GA(-1), L(-1). 9 Keepers in Bold. 12 player Farm team (skaters under 110, goalies under 80 gp) in italics
LW - Gaudreau, Forsberg, Parise, Hyman (C)
C - Backstrom, Getzlaf, N Foligno (LW/RW), Kotkaniemi, Carter (LW/RW)
RW - Tarasenko, Rantanen, Arvidsson, Atkinson, Gourde (C/LW), Mikheyev (RW)
D - Dahlin, Theodore, Ellis, Klingberg, Fox, Andersson
G - Murray, Grubauer
Prospects -Rossi, Turcotte, Kravstov, Tippett, Bouchard, Lehtonen, K Miller, Addison, DeSmith, Kahkonen, Ingram, Gustavsson
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