Charlie Stramel Getting Deserved Attention This Season

Stram-tastic is a junior at Michigan state, I believe

Middleton has definitely played pretty well, so maybe he's being given a chance to be a more offensive-minded line with Faber while Brodin and Spurgeon shut things down defensively.  The team needs to figure out what went wrong against the Flyers.  Maybe it was goaltending voodoo, but it isn't worth seeing some defensive adjustments anyway.

I've thought the Faber-Middleton pairing has been pretty good this year. I think last season when they used it both were playing hurt, maybe around 80%. That will affect things. Midsy couldn't move and Faber had problems with contact due to their injuries. 

So, this move disrupts, essentially, nothing and sends Merrill to the Prossbox. Now, let's see if Spurgy is healed or if it's another 2 games and then 6 off? IMO, if Spurgy can't go for about 10 straight games and needs another break, this just isn't working. LTIR him and go get another defender, or bring up Hunt and let him learn on the 3rd pairing. At least Hunt can skate with the other teams, Merrill has struggled there. 

I am not opposed to giving Hunt 1st crack at it. While, Bogosian was solid as a top 4, I think I'd keep him with Hunt and put Chisholm up with Brodin. This way you stretch the guys you have and see if they can fill that spot. It would be a major boon to find a cheap Chisholm off the scrap heap who can play top 4 minutes. It also raises his trade stock if Hunt can fill in the 3rd pairing adequately and Buium can move into his slot. 

If it plays out that way, I would not trade Chisholm for a pick, I'd be looking for a guy who was high on Judd's draft board from 2020-2022 who has little playing experience, probably a forward and most hopefully with adequate size! That's how you buy low and sell high.

It's nice to hear that the transfer portal ended up working with Charlie Stramel.  I think the Wild FO should take notice of what is working for him and what didn't work at WI so they can put him in a similar situation. Each player is unique, and has different ways of learning/developing. Perhaps instead of Stramel heading to Iowa after this, maybe the right place is a year in Europe? It's not a suggestion, it's just being open minded in his development. What if he had a year in the K? Learn a little Russian to communicate with his teammates 😀.

This idea would likely be frowned upon. While this is not a political friendly environment, I do have to wonder what affect the new presidential administration will have on guys like Yurov. Let's say, for instance, that the next president does not support the war in Ukraine and peace is achieved within a year. What affect would that have on the WJCs, and bringing Russian players over? What about Olympics and Worlds? Would it be friendly to, say, loan a player or 2 to the K for Russian development as I think they are harder on their players improving? 

From a pure hockey standpoint, it would be nice if Russia were back in the international pool, and we were friendlier with them in terms of scouting and development. I also have to wonder if an end to hostilities would mean that ESPN+ would again pick up K games to watch our guys over there perform? 

One of Stramel's assists came inside the blue line so far. Sounded like it was a set play where he stands by the goal post and they send it to him to bank/bumper the puck back in front of the goal to his teammate and they executed that against Canisius on Friday night.

His other 2 assists were neutral zone plays where the opposition made mistakes and Stramel was able to push/deflect the puck to a teammate near the blue line--his teammates made excellent plays to get him an assist.

Nice that Stramel is getting solid minutes and getting on the score sheet, just trying to get a sense for the type of plays where he tallies points.

8 hours ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Stram-tastic is a junior at Michigan state, I believe

With how he played his two seasons at Wisconsin, it's not surprising that one was completely forgotten about.