Pavels Dog
Registered User
Agreed. The way it looks, I don't think we are going to be rolling out a heavy #1C/#2C punch unless something major changes in our pipeline or we land high-end centers that are ready quickly with both 2021 and 2022 draft picks.. so we'll need to compensate. Wingers look like a source of strength for us, defense has a way to go but is coming along, goalies and centers really are the huge questionmarks.well, the Pittsburgh model is really the model for quite awhile. Look at the 90s with Dallas/Colorado/Detroit and their centers. Edmonton rolled Gretzky/Messier. NYI had Trottier and Bourne, iirc. If you wanted to win you had to be strong down the middle.
I will agree that the league has moved away from that a bit, and we're seeing weaker teams win the Cup. But even then we generally see these teams make up for it in other areas in a big way. Chicago had Kane running the second line, which is probably our best hope right now with Zadina/Raymond. Tampa, though I think Cirelli doesn't fit, had a big three on D and a Vezina caliber goalie. Anaheim ran Pronger/Neidermeyer out there for 50+ minutes a night.
If you don't have two pretty big guns up the middle, I think you have to compensate for that in a big way - at least if you want sustained success.