one thing we need to keep in mind is patience... yes it sucks being a basement team for 5 seasons... however our key players are:
mostly under 25 (Brown and Zub are over, Brown shouldn't be key but is)
Haven't even gotten to 300 games (an arbitrary number used for d-men back in Ceci's early days)
a few haven't even played a full 82 game season!
one player we're all projecting to be a key contributor is still in college...
here's the way I see it currently.
Tkachuk - Norris - Batherson - Key contributors (Norris hasn't even played 82 games yet)
Stützle - Pinto - Brown - Key contributors (Stützle and Pinto haven't played 82, Pinto is a rookie, ideally Brown is depth and a PKER instead of a key offensive contributor)
als0 ideally Pinto is an elite 3rd line C ala Cirelli or Fisher.
on D we have 2 key contributors, one alright NHL D, and 3 who shouldn't be on an NHL roster.
Chabot - Zub - Key contributors (Zub, although 26, hasn't played a full 82 games)
if these were normal times and a pandemic hadn't slowed everything down, things may be a little different.
however if you look at it in a purely games played sort of way?
Norris, Stützle, Pinto and Zub are all still in their rookie seasons...
ultimately this team is:
2 top 6 players (1 C 1 RW)
2 top 4 D (both sides)
and some stable, competent goaltending away from truly competing... we have 1 projected piece of that in Sanderson, 1 hopeful piece of that if Gustavsson keeps up and proves hes the real deal...
so unless some key acquisitions are made between now and next year, were still 2 key pieces away from truly contending.
and thats not even mentioning the depth... which I think we have 4 pieces on our roster right now (Paul, Pinto, Brown, Formenton)