bustaheims said:
princedpw said:
I think losing Mikheyev is a significant loss but we could bring someone in at the deadline that will bump up the forward depth.
It's a loss for the PK, but, his offensive production (at least, in terms of goal scoring rate) is likely to decline. His shooting percentage this past season was basically double what he put up the previous two seasons. That's likely to drop off. He was also really a very opportunistic scorer - most of his goals came off breakaways or odd man rushes. He didn't provide a ton of value when the Leafs had possession in the zone. He's a loss, but not one that can't be compensated for by improving in other areas.
The Leafs also played very well with him out of the line-up in the first 2 months of the season. Even the PK, which he is certainly very good at, had roughly the same numbers with him healthy vs not.
Him and Kase will still both need to be replaced on the PK units though, although they were ranked 4th and 5th in average ice-time there. Potentially losing Kerfoot if that happens, who was 3rd, would make that an even bigger problem.
Aube-Kubel has never killed penalties at the NHL level at least, but I suspect the Leafs will try him out. His skillset certainly seems like someone who can play there, I'm actually a little surprised he hasn't really done it so far.