Ok...well now you’re getting crazy because you know that’s the top depth...but if you’re asking who has a really good 1-2 centers and two wingers who score close to 30+ goals a year, that’s pretty much every real contender in the East—TB, BOS, WSH, TOR and WPG, Calgary...even CLB you’d have to give the nod now to with Debois, Duchene in the middle and Panarin, Atkinson...
Agree, theres alot more talent now than there used to be. Teams are way more stacked now. Hence the reason we dont see the typical 4th liner scrub or fighter like we saw so much of in the past. Even tho theres a few still hanging on lol..you see 4th liners who actually have some talent now. That can score.
But anyway to me its all about the playoffs. Who steps up...who doesnt. Weve seen Guentzel do it...thats why Im so high on him. Yet theres guys on other teams who put up 80+ points in reg season but disappear in the playoffs. And in alot of cases that can be the difference between that team winning it all and getting eliminated. Look at Caps. Solid players this whole era. But in playoffs didnt have " enough" guys who were playoff types. Now they land Kuznetsov and he was the main reason they finally won. Team sport of course, but can come down to one player's production in the playoffs at times. For example you know what you are getting from your top guys on each team so they kind of cancel eachother out assuming they are close in production... but they cant be the only ones every single game if youre gonna play 20+ playoff games. You need someone else to take their game to another level. Kessel did that for us in 2016 and Guentzel in 2017. Those were the 2 I look at that if we didnt have we dont win. Doesnt mean there werent others who played great, but Jakes (12?) Goals and the timing of them were the difference imo. Nashville could have taken game 1 if not for him. Who knows what happens if they took that.
Kuznetsov had so many timely goals last year. They made Tampa and Vegas look bad. We were the toughest team they played imo and had guys hurt(no secondary scoring) . And we still could have won if not for Kuz. Look at 2016 and 17...he wasnt ready yet. Caps fans kept mentioning how disappointing he was. Great reg season numbers but didnt step up against us.
Theres still alot more that goes into winning a cup(lucky bounces..goaltendjng...bettman..) Im just mentioning one big factor. When teams are close in talent (on paper..on ice) the ones that win are the teams who have more guys built for playoff hockey. Like I said, Caps were one perfect example over the years. Winnipeg kinda reminds me of one so far...we'll see what happens this year. And so on. Theres a reason Chicago won 3, LA 2 and Pens 3. Had their core produce like they normally do but also others who came out of nowhere. Need both. Some dont even have their core step up