Detroit has more cap space this year than last. It’s not more money spent. It was just money spent. And if they DIDNT make those moves and had a basement cap hit they can’t trade Bert, Vrana or Hronek.
It’s a bummer this team couldn’t keep it going after game 50 or so. With Husso’s drop off I think we may have watched him play hurt for a while. Subpar backup goaltending really did this team in and cost them at least 5 games outright.
Injuries/PAP cost Detroit a ton of games from Bert, Vrana and Fabbri. Each of which were expected to put up 20+ goals.
Chiarot stunk way worse than anticipated. Then Hagg and Lindstrom probably cost this team another 4-5 games just on defensive mistakes alone.
If Vrana, Fabbri and Bert were healthy for 75% of the year, and this team got average or better backup goalkeeping they’re either in the wildcard or near it.
All we can do is look at what went wrong this year and make adjustments yo get better. 2 UFA wingers, 1 UFA RD. A legit backup goalie. This team might be wildcard next year before considering Raymond and Seider getting better while adding Edvinsson and Kasper.