Hard to say exactly where we'd be without him. But the way I see it, there are THREE major reasons for our success this year, and all three are critically important. This team can't continue the success it's having without all three (or course there are others, like good goaltending, but that goes without saying). To me, these three things are:
1. McDavid. Him being healthy, playing, and just being his beastly self with each game that goes by;
2. Draistaitl, and the rest of the secondary scoring. But Draisaitl is the key to it -- and right now he's even a key part of perhaps the most lethal line in hockey: Maroon-McDavid-Draisaitl. Drai easily had the 2nd most value among all our forwards before the trade (Hall included) and it was good to see Chia properly value him. He needs to stay here. Forever. Seriously. As for the rest of our secondary scoring, it looks like Nuge and Ebs are about to break out. Nuge has 4 points in his last 5 games, and Ebs has just looked really good in general the last 4-5 games. If they can keep it up, and we get some occasional goals from the other lines, then look out; we're going ot be very hard to stop. Then the last of the three points, but certainly not least...
3. Quality and depth on defense. It's not just having a quality defender or two. It's not just having a bunch of "NHL" Dmen who are actually 5-7 guys trying to be passed off as 'NHL quality depth defensemen' like what's happened in the past by certain GMs, when in fact it was more like 'AHL quality' at best. It's about having a true handful of QUALITY Dmen who can play top 4 minutes -- important minutes -- and be able to close out games. This is CRUCIAL, and something we hugely lacked for many years. It's not just Larsson -- and I'll get to him in a minute, but it's Klefbom, who's STILL getting better in his young career of the equivalent of which is less than 2 complete seasons (154 games), yet think of how good he already is most nights, ESPECIALLY (but not only) last night, and tell me he's not a keeper; it's Sekera, who's back to his rock-solid self, providing solid defensive minutes when needed to shut down top opposition and also contributing to timely goals on the PP; it's Russell who's fearlessness in shot blocking is unequaled, yet he also has surprisingly good skills for handling the puck, and skating it out into the neutral zone, and out of being pressured in the D-zone; it's Davidson, who continues his solid play in his complete, well-rounded game, with no weaknesses and continues to get better -- man, it would really suck to lose him to the ED after waiting this long to finally have a couple of our picks actually turn out and develop -- but whatever happens regarding that, he's been one of the reasons for our success; it's Nurse who took a huge step this season, and was really just starting to find his rhythm and contribute at the level he can before he got injured; it's Benning, who has been a bit of a revelation, seemingly coming out of nowhere (well, technically from college) and being able to step into the NHL right away and not look out of place, and he continues and will continue to get better. And finally, it's our rock: Our big man who stabilizes our top-pairing along-side Klefbom like no other partner we've played with Klef has been able to do. He was the exact partner and type of player Klefbom needed: able to log huge minutes with a defense-first mentality, and a knack for getting his nose dirty and throwing some hits, clearing the net, and winning puck battles along the boards with tremendous aplomb! He does so many little clever things every game; you need Dmen like him to win. Period.
But in the end, it's all our defensemen, which Chia has helped assembled, so kudos goes out to him. We FINALLY have a defense corps to be proud of, and we don't have to watch in fear when we have a lead now, but with confidence that we can beat anyone on any given night. But I really see Larsson as incredibly important part to our D, and the glue that holding it mostly all together, more-so than any other defender with maybe the exception of Klefbom. But they are all playing so well right now, and part of that is having chemistry with each, which thankfully Klef and Larsson found almost immediately, along with Sekera and Russell. Davidson and Benning also complement each other well, but they can also fit in other pairings with ease, which is a testament to their skill and ability.
The bottom line, and the TL;DR: We FINALLY have a defense made up of many quality defensemen, and have more of them then we've ever had in the past. You just can't win without this dimension on your team. Larsson is as big a part of it as anyone. If I was offered the ability to take back the trade, I'd say HELL NO! I love actually having a good defense for once! Finally I don't have to watch our team get pelted on for the final 10 minutes of the 3rd period when they're ahead a goal -- it just doesn't happen anymore. We're better than that; we can be confident that our team will pull out the victory, and our defense is a HUGE reason why. I don't want to ever go back to those times when our D gave us fits, and any lead seemed unsafe. NO FREAKING WAY! Keep moving forward and don't look back. It's working, the team is winning, our players are still mostly young and still learning and getting better and better. The fact is, there's a LOT of reasons for optimism, and no one can take that away from us, and a couple iffy trades by Chia (Larsson not being one of them, IMO) doesn't change that. Good and exciting times are ahead.
