I'm mostly joking, but not entirely. They're a bad defensive team that got rid of their best two-way forward for a ridiculously bad return that included a fringe 4th line grinder who has yet to prove he's a full-time NHLer. I think that was a dumb deal no matter how you slice it. Trade him if you want, but get a better effin' return than THAT.
The biggest change is behind the bench, so we'll see what Gallant can do with this bunch. IMO Quinn was the biggest thing holding them back, but I also don't love what they did this offseason. I don't think it's the disaster some in the analytics community are touting, but they have not done a thing to address their biggest weakness. It wasn't a lack of toughness, it was a lack of depth at center. They have an aging and inconsistent, though talented, scoring line center in Mika Zibanejad. Beyond that they have quite possibly the most vanilla player in the league in Ryan Strome, who's put up insane numbers riding shotgun with Panarin. That's not good enough. If they get Christian Dvorak as the rumors say, that's a huge win.
Lafrieniere is a legit talent so that should be a plus for them, Kakko has proven to be very good defensively, but we have yet to see him light it up at the other end of the ice. We'll see what happens there. Defensively they have a Norris-winning #1, so I think they're fine, and the goaltending should be a tad better than it was.
But while they got tougher, they did not necessarily get better. The only improvement will come from their young core developing.
