Without a doubt...but Thorburn is a bit player that should only be seeing single digit minutes a night. It's not his fault how he happens to be used.
Stafford is useless in all scenarios that aren't sheltered offensive minutes so he can put points on the board. We have better players to do that that can actually be used in other scenarios. I m willing to stipulate the locker room glue and leadership qualities as to why Thor is still around.
I'm scratching my head as to why Stafford is.
It's on Cheveldayoff to replace and upgrade these player, a job that should have been relatively easy to do...yet off season after off season it is something that he refuses to do and despite how well she's done in trades and despite how well he has done at the draft...I am now wondering if he should be replaced. We are losing years of our core's prime to his inability to make this team a contender.
This year for instance...we could have bought out Pavelec and gotten rid of him. We could have signed Schlemko or that other LHD that was available whose name escapes me. We could have gotten another top Six forward.
We had a golden opportunity to become really good...really quickly...and I think the Jets missed out. I'm not saying we should have done those long term contracts...but there were trades to be made using our extra first or whatever...that never materialized.
Almost all of our good prospects are getting ready to make the leap here, and soon we won't have a really good prospect pool to brag about because they will all be pros. When do we make the moves to take the next step?