3rd period of the Anaheim game, I felt like the guys came out with some fire. Too little too late, but I suspect things aren’t as dire as they might seem.
That said, our roster is far from complete. The loss of Pavelski, Braun, Nyquist, Donskoi has not been even slightly mitigated. I think Ferraro has done an outstanding job so far, but he is ultimately a rookie and not so naturally gifted as to be an immediate impact player. Certainly not ready to eat all of Braun’s minutes. Meanwhile, our entire right side is empty, our best RW and hope for replacing 38 goal scorer Joe Pavelski is Kevin Labanc, and there exists nothing even close in the depth chart after that. Melker, Yurtaykin, Radil, Brodzinski, and even Gambrell are 4th line player. They are not replacements for what we lost - although they would allow us to move Melker for more cap space at the TDL. Hell maybe we can even get a few late picks for a couple of them like we did with Desjardins and Sheppard.
I think Simek and Kane coming back will certainly help, but we need another top-6 winger at a minimum.
Even then, this team is not deep enough for a real run. A bad string of injuries could easily knock us out of contention. And injuries will inevitably derail us from getting much further than round 1 if we do make it.
Projected Line-Up:
Timo - Couture - TDL
Kane - Hertl - Labanc
Sorenson - Thornton - Brodzinski
Radil - Goodrow - Yurtaykin
Burns - Vlasic
Dillion - Karlsson
Ferraro - Simek (Off Side)