Definitely not a better team than last year but probably not a worst team either.
i don't see this team having any more chance at winning a Cup than we did last year or had we kept Gaudreau and Tkachuk. We are still way behind the Avs, behind the Blues in terms of quality. Right in a mix with Edmonton and LV where I could see any of the 3 winning the division in the regular season and getting out of the division to lose to the Central champs in the WCF.
Huby is our Johnny replacement. Dynamic winger who can pile up points, excels on the powerplay, and is great on the pk. Takes more penalties than Johnny, but was always a key offensive player for the Panthers (like Johnny was for us).
Kadri replaces Tkachuk. Points wise, I think Tkachuk will score more. BUT, Kadri also plays center, (bumping Backlund to the 3C role). They both take some untimely penalties, and have a suspension history and some questionable plays that make them loved by the teams they're on, but hated by every other fanbase. I think where Kadri's edge comes in is that he provides a lot of grit and playdriving ability as a center (which is something we kind of lacked). Bumping Backlund to our 3C gives us that top-tier defensive specialist who can still put up points, and makes line-matching us significantly harder. Backlund can shut guys down, but Kadri is good at that as well.
Regardless of whether Kadri or Lindholm plays our "first line" (Dutter does like to keep things pretty balanced if he can), it gives us 3 defensively strong C's, 2 of which are capable of driving their line (Lindy and Kadri), while the third is still good for roughly 40 points a season. It makes it a nightmare for other teams to shut down, and if they have "offense only" type forwards, they'll get eaten alive. Kadri also brings us some speed down the middle (which while I love Monahan, even pre-hip surgeries, was never exactly a fast guy), which makes him even more dangerous in a Dutter system since he's big on "play good defense, and then capitalize on mistakes". He'll be driving the play a lot more than we've seen from most of our centers in a long time.
I think we're a lock for top 2 in the division (Vegas is the competition there I think), since we also have a great workhorse goaltender in Markstrom, and Vladar who can 100% hold his own. And our D I think improved vastly. I liked Gudbranson, but Weegar plays good defense, most of his points come ES (even though he got some PP time) plays a lot of PK, and can play physical. He'll slot in for Tanev until he's healthy, and then we'll have 3 RS D-men who are all capable of playing top pairing (even if Tanev is probably best suited to playing second pairing, he's proven in the past he can go top pair without missing a beat). It's kind of a wealth of riches for us.
We lost Johnny, which sucks, but as I said, Huby replaces him, sideways move immediately, most likely a downgrade in 4-5 years. We lost Tkachuk, but we got Kadri for his overall role, which is a slight downgrade but not a huge one (I don't think Tkachuk hits 100+ points again, even though I think 70-80 is going to be more normal for him). We lost Gudbranson, but Weegar is a hard upgrade on him (and I was impressed with Guddy last season). We lost Monahan, which sucks as a person. He always seemed like a pretty stand-up guy, lots of community involvement, was a warrior for us, and gave us a lot. But his body broke down... a LOT, and from a production standpoint, losing him was probably an upgrade as a whole. Overall, I think we're a better team today than we were during the playoffs
www.tsn.ca
