Correct, it's not good enough. Yet. But that doesn't mean that the answer has to be found immediately, if the answer is a player and the cost to acquire that player doesn't make sense. Neither of us believe we're one player away from fixing our team's diffensive woes.
We can expect further development from Rielly, Dermott, and, I would suggest, Zaitsev, as well as huge progress from Liljegren, who I think could be ready to help out way earlier than some people think.
We can probably expect sheltered or inconsistent vets like JVR and Leo to have their minutes replaced by hungry youngsters like Johnsson and Kapanen, who have developed nicely in our excellent Marlies system.
And there are UFA options to explore as well, which could bolster our team D for nothing but a Cap hit, or trades that could possibly be made using pieces that may not be in the long-term plans (Gardiner, Leivo, any of our 2nd-string Goalies, for example) that should be looked at first, before we start trying to trade off our 2nd-line C locked up to a sweetheart deal for a few more years.
Do we need improvement? Yes, but even more importantly, we need to be smart about how we do it. In my opinion, trading core pieces right now is not the best way to do it.
