I look at both Peeke and Gavrikov as being much worse than almost everyone gives them credit for.
People want to talk Sillinger, Boqvist etc, when Peeke and Gavrikov are the ones on the ice being tasked (AND FAILING) at keeping the puck out of our net.
Gudbranson hasn’t played a single regular season CBJ game.
Now I remember...you are the Gavrikov / Peeke hater. What I find amazing is that your analysis seems to run completely contradictory to those of the CBJ coaches and management. But you probably played the game at a high enough level to justify.
Last season's team, which by the way was Peeke's first full year, was one of the youngest teams in the league and included an inexperienced and new coaching staff. Expectations were never high. The team defense incorporated a 100% man on man coverage. Therefore, young forwards (and forwards that are not defensively sound) are placed with much greater defensive responsibility. Defensemen are tasked with following their man and that results with them being seen out of position while maintaining assigned coverage. Personally, I think a zone coverage scheme works better with a team like CBJ. Maybe (hopefully) it will be incorporated this season.
I would find it very hard to criticize any of the players on last season's team except those who didn't give great effort. Its a team game and the better the team...the better individual players look. Gudbranson is an example with his season last year with Calgary. He was sheltered with Zadorov and had significant OZ starts (62.4%) vs Gavrikov 33.3% and Peeke 39.1%. Yet Calgary was one of the better teams in the league and Gudbranson was able to benefit.
As the CBJ continues to get better, and players getting more comfortable with systems and consistent linemates, and coaches who are no longer new....its very likely that players you criticize will outperform.
But again, I place more emphasis on what coaches, management, and other players on the team say.