What about goldobin and Virtanen?
I would put them in the same group at Grandlund and Baertschi. They could potentially end up being decent 2nd liners. Time will tell. Virtanen on some nights looks like he could be a 25 goal guy and then on other nights he looks more like a guy that will just never put it together and will just be an energy guy who surprises you sometimes... 10-15 goal guy.
Goldobin I get the same sense about. He has the skill... does he have the drive to really make it at this level?
What we might end up with here are 4 above average 3rd liners.
I think on a really good championship calibur team, you're going to need 1-2 guys who can score 30+ and then another 4-5 who can score you 20+ with a bunch of guys in the teens below them.
(Player) - (Pettersson - 30+) - (Boeser - 30+)
(Baertschi - 20+) - (Horvat - 20+) - (Vanek - 20+)
(Sedin - 20+) - (Sedin - 10+) - (Grandlund - 20+)
(Goldobin - 15+) - (Sutter - 15+) - (Virtanen - 15+)
To give you perspective, the Penguins last year scored 230 goals from their forwards last year. If the players can match what I have above, career highs for almost all of them, but attainable once they hit their prime, then the Canucks would have 215 with one roster spot still to fill. So if EVERYTHING works out and ALL of these players hit what we hope they attain... our forward group is perhaps decent enough. I would honestly look at trading two of Baertschi, Goldobin and Virtanen if we could pick up another solid Boeser type left side forward.
I'd even throw in a Benning 4th rounder to get it done.
We have 2/3rds of a potential great first line in the making.
