I don't understand why people think this season is going to be that bad.
When we traded Spezza away, everyone had it as a slam dunk that we would finish last or 2nd last in the conference. We didn't have a single first line player. Going into the season, our top 6 was Turris, Ryan, Zibanejad, MacArthur, Michalek and one of the 3rd/4th liners like Legwand or Condra. Our D was garbage too. Our bottom 4 D were Gryba, Weircioch, Boro and Cowen. Methot was injured half the season. Hoffman and Stone had good rookie seasons, and we made the playoffs.
This year we have two legit 1st line players, and we have more rookies with the potential to break out. Our forward core is deeper. Way deeper than it's ever been in a long time.
The season hasn't even started yet and people are throwing the towel. Good lord.... That's pathetic. ****ing bandwagoners.
Simply for the fact that Karlsson was traded not only for futures but FORWARDS.
DeMelo doesn't bring much more than any of Harpur, Boro, Englund and even Bergman can do, bottom pairing D. Tierney wasn't needed until Pageau went down in injury. Balcers is a nice prospect but he is a forward, something the team has already a ton of (good forward prospects close to making the team). Norris is still in college. 1st round pick, 2nd round pick and conditionals won't help for a few years.
So basically, for our best D-man and player, we got a Pageau replacement, a young forward who has a chance to crack the line-up (like many others), a D-man who is going to compete for a bottom spot and futures.
If the Karlsson trade (even if we didn't want that) was for Miller/Theodore, Brannstrom, Haula and a 1st, then maybe I'd be more optimistic for our chances this season. I'm not sure why Dorion was not able to get that. Karlsson didn't want to extend in Vegas?
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Anyway, I still have them doing a little bit better than last year because many factors can go their way this year :
- Boucher reinventing himself (it's been proven that his much too complicated system doesn't work anymore in the NHL)
- Andy and Condon providing much better goaltending (they were arguably the worst tandem last season)
- the youth impact (I'm expecting Chabot, Wolanin, Tkachuk, Chlapik, White and Paul to make the team right away or eventually)
- Stone and Ryan staying healthy, hopefully no other significant injury than Pageau (but we've been screwed by injuries every year since can't remember when)
- team chemistry is the key
This is how I envision it (or hope it shapes us like this). Lines could be different but that's my top-9 and top-4 :
Dzingel-Duchene-Ryan
Tkachuk-Tierney-Stone
Boedker-Chlapik-White
Paajarvi-Paul-Pyatt
McCormick
Chabot-Wideman
Wolanin-Ceci
Borowiecki-DeMelo
Harpur
Anderson
Condon
* traded Zack Smith for a pick, so Paul can have the 4th line C spot (and Melnyk saves more money)
** I have Wideman with Chabot, because I believe he's one of the few that could outplay his depth for a short period of time. If he succeeds, we could actually get a good return for him at the deadline, so PLEASE Boucher do this. It's been proven that Ceci can't outplay his depth, he should be your 4th best D-man max.
I would agree that this line-up will be massively underrated but even if many things go right, I still can't see them making the playoffs. Everything would need to go 99% right for them to make the playoffs. Don't like those odds
But it's still way better than what we had in 2014-15. Back then, Turris was our only bonafide top 6 forward, and he wasn't even a 1st liner. Unless you count Ryan as a top 6 player, which mean you have to count him this year too.
2014-15 was BEFORE Ryan started to have recurrent injuries though. He was still a 0.7 PPG forward then (which is mid/low end 1st line production). Last 2 seasons, he had 0.40 (plus that exceptional playoffs run) and 0.53 (which is good 3rd line production and low end 2nd line production). It's like we have traded first liner Ryan for middle-sixer Ryan since then. Exactly like Hoffman for Boedker.
But you're citing this AFTER THE SEASON. I'm talking about at the beginning of the season, which is where we are now. At the beginning of the season we had exactly one top 6 forward, Turris, and he wasn't even considered a 1st line player. Hoffman and Stone were complete unknowns. We had no idea they would have fantastic seasons, especially not calder worth like Stone's. As it stands today, we're in a far far better position than we were at the beginning of the 2014-15 season.
No you're right in principle, things could go better than expected but you need several breakouts like 2 young forwards breaking into top-6 scorers (and/or Ryan and Boedker bouncing back significantly), Chabot breaking out as a legit top pairing D-man and Wolanin breaking out as a legit 2nd pairing D-man (plus other factors like goaltending bouncing back, Boucher bouncing back, health not being a problem and team chemistry being much better than last season)
If all those things happen then yeah, they could have a much better season than we expect.
Gee . . . you guys are giving them a lot of points. My first thought was 25 but seeing's as most of you think they'll do much better than that, I'll raise it to 45-50 points. I just don't see this team doing anything at all this year . . . or maybe I'm still too upset about Karlson and am not thinking straight.
Youth excitement and absolutely no pressure will help them this season. If they were expected to make the playoffs, they would fail horribly.
