Nico (nor anyone on the top line) is the the problem. This is the classic blame the good player on a bad team because the rest of the team is bad BS that goes on with fans.
Nearly half the forward group are borderline legitimate NHL players. Gauthier, Kuokkanen, Sharangovich, McLeod and Vesey (who I’ve liked but is on his 5th team in 4 years) are all guys who at best are probably extra forwards on good teams. Then you have two promising, but ripe
Kids in Mercer and Holtz who are going to be up and down. That is pretty much more than half your forward lineup.
Part of this is mismanagement by the front office banking on guys they probably shouldn’t be banking on at this point (Kuok and Sharangovich). The last few years it seems like it has been two veteran players out at the deadline and only one guy coming in as a signing in the offseason to replace. That has killed the depth of the team as they have not had internal replacements truest ready. Mercer has been a revelation this year, but he should be replacing a further depth guy not Zajac essentially. It also doesn’t help that the guy they did sign, Tatar, has been bad.
The result is one key injury and the team up front is sunk.