But if you want to go to the next level and be consistent playoff team you need to find the Kucherov, the Alfie, the Patrice Bergeron, Marchand (we got that in Stone) - but the depth around him isn't there. Stone could be skating on a line this season with Zach Smith as his center and Tom Pyatt as his winger - that gets you nowhere.
I have no idea why Boucher would play a Pyatt-Smith-Stone line
It’s way more likely that he plays with Dzingel, Boedker, Pageau, Duchene, Ryan and probably even Brown
If I was the coach I would go
Ryan-Brown-Stone
Stone brings the best in other players. If Brown and Ryan produce, you are in really good shape. That would be a very skilled line and everybody brings specific elements that are not in every hockey player.
But are you feeling that? I think we have some nice pieces, but our lack of C depth and seeing Brown be a bit of a Galchenyuk type of sleepy player who's only dangerous on the PP doesn't give me a ton of confidence we'll have the type of players we need at C and D to succeed
On the opposite, I think the Center depth will be a big strength of the team.
Duchene, Brown, Batherson, White, Chlapik, Pageau. I think we’ll easily have 3 good/great centers and 2/3 of them will have to play on the wing.
On defense, it’s still early too tell but assuming we keep EK, we have Karlsson and Chabot as building blocks and then Jaros, Wolanin, Ceci, JND, Tychonick, Lajoie, Bergman, Harpur, etc. I think you have a good chance to build a decent/good defense.
I like some of our pieces, but overall I think we are missing a Bergeron / Alfie type of 2-way forechecking shut down forward who can carry an entire line of 2nd and 3rd liners. We remeber Alfie for the Pizza line, but he carried Todd White/ Arvedsson for years, not exactly top laent - we need another couple of forwards who just give you a winning element and beyond Batherson and Tchauk Im not feeling that impact type of forward in our prospect pool
Strange that you say that because Stone is exactly that type of player... Did you know that he averaged 70 pts per 82 games in his 4 full NHL seasons. That’s on top on being a Selke level winger and the king by far at stealing the puck. He makes anyone he plays with better
If only Batherson and Tkachuk hit, you still have
Tkachuk-Duchene-Dzingel
Ryan-Batherson-Stone
Boedker-Pageau-White