Blunden, Berger, Quailer and Schultz should try the left wing

Another point about Mathieu Darche is that both he and Travis Moen play on the left wing. If we decide not to re-sign these guys, we have really, really slim pickings in our organization to try to reload. There’s Max Pacioretty, René Bourque, and then nobody fit to play in the NHL. We have Blake Geoffrion, but I think he needs this summer spent on plyometrics and powerskating, next season in Hamilton, and yet another summer developing his leg strength and explosiveness before he can be thought of as a legitimate NHL player. The rest of the left wingers under contract will most probably never make the NHL.

Here’s a quick list of our left wingers:

Max Pacioretty
Travis Moen
Rene Bourque
Mathieu Darche
Blake Geoffrion
Hunter Bishop
Dany Massé
Philippe Lefebvre
Andrew Conboy
Robert Slaney
Olivier Archambault
Dustin Walsh
Maxim Trunev

With this considered, and the meager pickings in free agency and the overbidding which will occur for the few useful players out there, we can understand the need to ink both our UFA left wingers promptly, before July 1.

Also, the Hamilton coaching staff should experiment with right wingers who aren’t necessarily puck handlers and slick passers, but rather physical wingers and finishers, and flip these guys to the left side and see how they do there. I’m looking at you, Steve Quailer, Ian Schultz, Mike Blunden and Alain Berger…