jkutswings
hot piss hockey
- Jul 10, 2014
- 11,077
- 8,825
And I'd prefer to be a bottom 1 team, by a wide margin.I disagree with the fundamentals of your line of thinking. We are a bottom 5 team. Only 3 teams scored less goals than us. No one would be surprised if we are the worst team in the league next season by a margin of 10 points.
One of these scenarios is an order of magnitude more likely than the others.Sure in theory it's possible Vanek scores an important goal that helps us win game #53 of the season which could then be seen as a reason we finish 4th worst instead of 3rd worst. Just like Larkin could get 80+ points and singlehandedly win enough games to put us out of the bottom 10, or Howard could win the Vezina, or Blashill could emulate Gallant and take us to the SCF.
I'm not at all afraid to sign anybody. But when rebuilding, you either sign an asset to flip - which Vanek is not - or you sign a guy with a future here - which Vanek is not.Or, Mantha could score 50 goals but our sh*t defense still lands us as a bottom 3 team. Who the heck knows. But when you're as bad as we are, you can't be afraid to sign a dirt cheap FA for 1 year because THAT guy is going to help you win a bunch of games. We're so bad that we could add Karlsson and Tavares and still not be a lock to make the playoffs.
Dylan Larkin is the only player anywhere on the roster or in the system that I'm certain I want to keep. Anybody else is fair game for the right price, so everybody else should either show noticeable growth, or be shipped out / taken off the books when feasible, not brought back for a reunion tour to perhaps win a few more meaningless regular season games.