Choose Your Own Jets Adventure: Centres

Not to be confused with Ludacris and Lil’ Kim asking to kn-know wh-what’s your fan-ta-tasy, the Jets Choose Your Own Adventure is a chance to vote on which players should fill in the remaining spots in our forward and defence depth. Part 1, with left wings and an explanation of the metrics I’m using, is here. Part 2, on right wings, is here.

After a week of voting, it looks like you folks believe Nik Antropov, Chris Thorburn, and Spencer Machacek will play the most out of our crop of right wings. Moving on to centre, we have bit of a thicker situation (similar to right wing), with three spots and four candidates. I added one more metric to this group, faceoff win percentage (FO%), as it’s something unique and important to this particular position.

Without further ado, the centres…

Alexander Burmistrov

Young, very talented, and with a combination of slick moves and solid passing, Burmistrov has the possibility of fulfilling his #8 selection in the 2010 Draft.  That said, he's not there yet, and needs to work on his faceoffs if he wants to stick in the middle.

Jim Slater

A proven talent in the faceoff dot, the knock on Slater is that he can't seem to prove himself much away from it.  Injuries haven't helped his cause, but at 28 years old time is running out for Slater to show marked progression.

Rick Rypien (RIP, 1984-2011)

I place Rypien here in homage, given his passing yesterday evening.  It was likely that he would have been placed on the 4th line in a role where he excelled, as an energy player and enforcer.  In an upcoming Jets annual, I commented that he'd be a Winnipeg fan favourite within the first month of the season (if he wasn't already from his time with the Moose).  A tragedy for the Rypien friends and family, a tragedy for his fans present and future…rest in peace, Rick.

Tim Stapleton

A slick little (5'9" [175cm], 182 lb [83kg]) centre who can also play right wing, Stapleton has never had the skill and/or opportunity to hold down an NHL job.  In baseball terms, he'd be a "AAAA player", a guy who could do well in the minors but not quite have enough to play big at the highest level.  Great for 4th line work, possibly.

Ben Maxwell

Maxwell could be in the same boat as Stapleton, only younger (23 years old to Stapleton's 29), and a little better at playmaking.  Once again, a guy like him could work on the 4th line, but probably not much higher.

All of the other potential centre prospects simply aren’t ready (Eric O’Dell, Mark Scheifele), might never be ready (Riley Holzapfel), or are too old to be prospects and would just be filler (Jason Jaffray, Aaron Gagnon). Granted, that might also be the fate of Maxwell and Stapleton, but they get grandfathered.

Rock the vote.