What statement is false? That Sakic has basically the same roster as last year? When it comes to key pieces, it's true. Most of these guys listed played minimal roles in the bottom six. Beauch was the only guy doing any significant minutes, and he'll be replaced by....? Mironov? Bigras? A complete unknown at the NHL level and a guy they tried to rush who also had his development derailed by injuries.
Just because they weren't top pairing or top six guys doesn't mean their supreme suckiness didn't affect the core of this team. When the support players aren't doing what's asked of them, like taking on the opposition's best, killing penalties, or even at the VERY least avoiding dumb penalties or trying to force an offensive zone faceoff, then they're making the task of the star players next to impossible. It was horribly easy to shut down the Avs last year.
Think about it...the Avs have cut loose (by my count) eight players. Only one currently has an NHL contract. One already bolted to the KHL and will likely never be seen again in North America. The rest might be done save for maybe a late add or PTO. When's the last time you remember that happening?
He's the one who accumulated all of those garbage players and couldn't even get assets for them because of how terrible he and his pro scouting staff are at identifying depth players.
Barbie and Ghetto's honeymoon periods will be over just like Nieto's is, and they'll fall back down to earth.
The former I won't argue with. The latter isn't a big deal. One, it's not like Nieto was that high in the sky to begin with.
He's played decently, it's just the fact that his best attributes, speed and a willingness to get his nose dirty, were such a godsend on a team with too many lumbering perimeter players, that his exploits looked even better than they actually were. He's a quality 4th liner, which is fine.
As for Andrighetto, he's not a long-term solution, but he was a perfectly good get. He just has to keep the seat warm for someone else.
Wilson is better than most of the players who are gone so there's one instance of clear improvement.
Yakupov is no better than the guys that left, lateral move there.
The more I think about it the less thrilled I am about the Wilson acquisition. He's not terrible defensively, but he's not great, and he's also not a consistent scorer. If anything I feel like that is a lateral move because he kind of embodies the kind of depth player the Avs have snagged too many times. But whatever, he's not horrible, I just wish they'd do better than this.
Yak will likely fail IMO, but whatever, very little risk involved on this one.
Compher might struggle in his second season. Jost might not be ready to play in the NHL full time. Greer still might need some polishing as well. Beaudin and Meloche realistically shouldn't see any NHL games this year, but the depth is pretty bad still so it's possible with injuries I suppose. Lindholm isn't any better or proven than the D that left (yet).
I'll admit that it's finally good to see Sakic freeing up spaces for our youth, but if you think we're somehow going to climb our way out of the bottom-3 with the Duchene drama lingering around the dressing room like a heavy fart, you're in for a disappointment.
I think they are a better team now than they were. Younger, faster, tougher. If they can't seem to get over any supposed drama hanging around Duchene then they deserve to fail again.
Not to mention the D still needs a top pairing LHD and for Zads to be signed. Until that happens they can shuffle around all the bottom-6 players they want and still won't win games without fixing the decade long issue on the blue line.
They'll be more exciting to watch because of the young guys, and it'll be less hopeless watching them struggle because there's always untapped upside to be hopeful about with rookies, but it's the same core with the same internal issues so I don't expect much difference in the standings.
I can't really argue with much here...I think they WILL be better, mainly because it would be extremely difficult for them to be much worse. I think the coaching staff has improved, but we can only sit and watch to see if Bednar and his new staff have it figured out now. He too failed as badly as the team did, I'm not gonna give him a full pass for last season, but I do think he was absolutely hung out to dry by management last year when the bottom fell out and they did NOTHING save for waiving one player and then not demoting him.