No coach was beating the Penguins with last year's team, reality check, they just weren't that talented.
Taking them to 6 games was about as much as anyone could reasonably expect, and they had a shot in that 6th game if Gudas doesn't meltdown.
Lehtera played 10 minutes a night, the bottom six basically sucked. Weal was the only one who should have played more, and he was inconsistent.
This year could be better if Ron can find a 3C - that's the key to this season.
However, with Couts playing 20+ and Patrick 18-20 minutes a night, we're talking 20-22 minutes between the 3C and 4C.
You can live with Laughton at 4C with Raffl and NAK until Vorobyev is ready, but Laughton is not a 3C, and I doubt Weal can handle it.
The only way Weise and Lehtera see the ice this year is if everyone else is injured or goes belly up. If they land a 3C, not sure there is room on the roster for Weal and Leier, much less those two.
This is a GM issue, but Ron has lots of assets and plenty of time, no reason to panic right now, see Vorobyev and Frost in camp, see who is willing to move a veteran C for cheap in late September.
Hakstol would have loved Ron to get him O'Reilly or Bozak to play 3C this year, that would have made making out a lineup card a breeze.
Right now bottom six center is a mess, but Ron's problem is he's looking at Frost, Vorobyev and Rubtsov in 2019-20, so he doesn't want to block them.
Ideally, find a solid RH C who can move to RW next year and replace Simmonds.