We don't have to replace Letang with an all-star defenseman. We just have to go from a top-heavy blueline to a more blueline by committee. We'd need much better than Hunwick and Cole. It'll be an adjustment, but I don't think it would crush this team nearly as much as people want to think. Letang's a really bad option to be the cornerstone of your blueline between his cap hit, injury issues and inconsistent play. That being said, I'd be absolutely astonished if we couldn't get a huge return for the guy (great roster player, very good prospect, 1st rounder). Give me a less talented/top-end blueline but full of consistent, quality players over the high risk/high reward situation we have now where our blueline corps relies almost entirely on the performance/health of a guy as inconsistent and injury prone as Letang. And when I say injury prone, I don't mean like Beau Bennett. I mean injury prone due to constantly putting himself in horrendous positions to take these cheapshots and dangerous hits. If it hasn't changed after half a dozen concussions/neck injuries/etc. it's never gonna change. Let someone else worry about his health and performance while hoping he stabilizes his game and becomes the defenseman that we see once in a blue moon but people latch on to and sing the praises of, ignoring his crippling shortcomings.
This team needs to be fleshed out from top to bottom. We were successful because of depth in 2015-16 and we won entirely on the back of talent and timely performances in spite of our shortcomings in 2016-17. We need to fix the bottom six (3C, 4C), we need another scoring winger (youth, speed, goal-scorer), and we need to build a better blueline as a whole as opposed to building it with Letang as our linchpin using Dumo, Maatta, Schultz and Oleksiak as the start.
