It's pretty remarkable to get worse in the two positions that got Francis fired for not addressing. At least if this season is unsuccessful we won't have to fire someone competent.
We're not getting worse at Center. We're getting players who are less experienced in that role, but are much more talented. The skill level will be higher but less consistent. Aho/Staal/Necas/Wallmark(?) is a better lineup down the middle than Staal/Rask/Ryan/(Kruger/Whoever). Absolutely no question in my mind. Will they be what we want them to be? I don't know. I'm skeptical that Wallmark can play the hard shifts on the 4th line that we really need him to play to take the pressure off of Staal. But we haven't had that since McClement's first year, so that's not exactly an argument for Francis.
Goalie? Yeah, it sucks. We just didn't have any real options. Mrazek is not the worst thing ever, though. My money is on Mrazek recovering- he stole a starting job from a pretty damn good goalie once. He's proven something Darling hasn't, even with his meltdown in Philly. Goalies are voodoo, but if one of our goalies makes a run, I'd bet it's him.
We know what we would have gotten in Ward. Better than Darling, but not physically up to handling a full season's worth of work anymore. It sucks- he's a great guy, and when he's on his form, a spectacular goalie who's legitimately one of the best around. But we broke him. If we resigned him, we know that we couldn't be good enough, because Ward can't be good for enough games. So it's a spin of the roulette wheel- boom or bust.