When you have a franchise center and likely the next generational defender... things aren't that bad. Pairing up Dahlin and Montour then pushing Risto to the bottom pairing should mean the defense will be solid. At 7 they should be able to get a high end forward to insert in the line up in a year. Olofsson looks primed and ready. Nylander better be at this point. Smith looks like he can step into a middle 6 role. They should be primed to have a nice infusion of talent to surround their guys with, regardless of Skinner.
That's a very sunny outlook. Not inaccurate at all, but sunny. Still feels like they'd be overworking Eichel (which hasn't exactly worked for them in the past), a franchise defenseman who won't even hit 20 years of age until April of
next year, and hope once again that Mittelstadt hits his stride should Skinner opt out. They'll also have a hard time bumping Risto down the lineup with Lawrence Pilut starting the first month or two on IR, Bogosian pretty much done, and Scandella struggling mightily.
And then there's *fart noise* Hunwick.
If he's gone, the best they can hope for is mediocre, but then again that'd be a step in the right direction.
Looking at their CapFriendly page...oof. Four guys on the buyout list. Thankfully for them, one (Moulson) is officially off the books this year. And two are compliance buyouts so at least their cap hits don't show up.
FTR I like the hire, Krueger has such an interesting background and absolutely deserved a second chance. I dare say he might end up being a better choice than McLellan. But I'm still just not sure what Buffalo's aiming for. The damage has been done and I'm still not sure Botterill's the guy to fix it since he did some of the damage himself.
