Lawson Crouse

One of those players is now a Boston Bruin, um, in JJ Peterka.

But the question here is, is like which of those players do you slot in there? If you remember towards the end of last season, Lawson Crouse was that player.

Um, but does that become Vincent Trocheck? Does he, you know, kind of go to the middle and push Nick Schmaltz to the wing? Do you keep Nick Schmaltz as a centerman and you put Crouse for up there? Uh, you know, Baird Hayden spent some time, especially early in the season, um, before he initially got injured, where he was in that center position pushing Nick Schmaltz out to the wing.

Um, and when you think about puck possession, um, overall the best puck possession that they had was technically with Logan Cooley.

The second-best puck possession was with Baird Hayden.

Hmm

... or in the center and push Schmaltz out to the wing really kinda dictates the play.

Crouse was kinda that player where went to the front of the net, dug in the corners.

So, um, exciting time.

We had a chance to talk to Lawson Crouse on the Nashcast, AD.

Um, we-- of course, we had to get him on episode number 67.

Um-

Uh, so some great times.

Shout out Kristen Bonas and her crew for, uh, all the work that they put in to, to make that week special.

Yeah, and that was, uh, a line that I believe you might have seen for Lawson Crouse.

Long line for the sheriff, and, uh, got through the, uh, got through the whole line.

I, I...

There's nobody I can think of that's near the end of their contract that would request a trade out, except for maybe Lawson Crouse.

But again, I don't see him as the kind of player that would do that.

And Bill, we need to get a deal done there.

[chuckles] This is, this is w- week seven of me saying, "Bill, we need a deal done with, with Lawson Crouse.

Let's get that wrapped up here." But other than that, I mean, you got Kevin Fiala on a one-year deal.

Brandon Tanev has a couple years left.

I think that would be best.

And then on the second line, it's Anders Lee, it's Logan Cooley, it's Dylan Gunther, or it's Lawson Crouse, Logan Cooley, Dylan Gunther.

And then you could flip-flop Anders Lee and Los- Lawson Crouse however you want on that third line with Barrett Hayton.

And then I would put in Michael Carconi there.

He played really well on that third line last year.

You know, Michael Carconi was almost a 20-goal scorer.

If Yamamoto had more games, I think he would've been up towards that same number.

And when you look at it, I think both of them might take a slide backwards a little bit because of Barrett Hayton getting more opportunities, and then you got Logan Cooley being healthy for a full season, and you've got Vincent Trocheck taking more time away from Lawson Crouse, who will then get bumped down to the second or third line.

He's, he's not gonna mix it up like you would want him to, especially on a line with Guenther and Cooley.

You're gonna need a guy who's willing to mix it up, which is why I think Lawson Crouse would be perfect for that line, if not Anders Lee.

So this one as well is an upgrade.

Um, y- it's an upgrade, not, it's not a straight one-to-one upgrade.

They, they were surprised by the puck finding them a lot.

Lawson Crouse got better as the year along, went along as he was on the line.

He was used to it.

But when they started playing together on that line, you could see [chuckles] Crouse get surprised a couple of times with the puck finding him.

Uh, first it was Barrett Hayton, and then it was Logan Cooley for a few games, and there was a long stretch with Perterka, uh, at the end of the first half of the season.

But in the second half of the season, Keller and Schmaltz were joined by Lawson Crouse, and that worked.

Uh, I think some of us were very happy with adding Lawson Crouse to our teams at just the right time when he showed up on that line.

Also, Dylan Gunther, uh, played with them for a handful of games, but largely it was Keller, Schmaltz, Crouse, and that line was just better.

So that plus some regression that Keller was owed, plus him taking more attempts on net, sh- attempting more shots on net that I think created more chances for his line mates, that's why Keller's second half was better and that's why I think it's sustainable.

I don't want them to mess with it.

Don't mess with it.

You think it's gonna be Lawson Crouse still? They also got Anders Lee.