Speculation: Your teams strengths and weaknesses

[WhatTheDuck]

Strengths

Goaltending - Gibson is among the game's elite as long as he stays healthy

Top 4 D - Lindholm/Montour + Fowler/Manson -> Probably couldn't ask for a more balanced/quality top 4 in the absence of a true elite guy

Top line duo - An uninterrupted season of Rakell on LW with Getzlaf could see them both put up huge numbers.



Weaknesses

Health - Starting another year with key injuries. Perry out most of the season, Kesler currently skating with the team but not cleared for contact. Eaves apparently a bit behind him. Kase now has a concussion, and Ritchie is still a holdout.

Grit - Our current forward group is young, untested and lacking in grit. Steel and Lundestrom have shown enough to at least get a longer look up the middle, but neither of them is Kesler. Terry has the skill and smarts to play with Rakell/Getzlaf but strength is his big concern. Comtois and Sherwood both earned their spot in camp and bring some jam but not enough to replace the pushback that's missing from the lineup.

 

[2022 Stanley Cup]

GODLY OFFENCE:
BIG PAPPY, JOHNNY TRONNA, MAGIC MITCH & WILLY

FT

NIFTY MITTENS KADRI, PAPA LEAF PATTY MARLEAU, KAPPY & The Boys

2 50 Pt D-Men:
CAPTAIN MORGAN & JAKE THE SNAKE

WORLD CLASS TENDY:

FREDDY VEZINA

This is way better when you read it in Babcock's voice

 

[Broad Street Buddies]

Flyers

Strength;
Top 9
Gritty
Finnish smugglers
PP1

Weaknesses;
Bottom 4
Hakstol/Laperrière
Goalies

 

[Scandale du Jour]

Strenghts

- Top talent (Crosby, Malkin, Kessel, Letang)
- Depth at C
- Depth at RW
- Depth at D
- Speed
- Winning experience
- Murray when on

Weaknesses

- Durability (Letang, Malkin and Murray are concerns on that front)
- Depth at LW
- Murray when off, consistency (he is very young still, so it is expected despite the early success)

 

[CBJFan827]

Strengths
*One of the best under 25 cores in the entire league
*One of the best goalies in the world (at least for now)
*FBOW, stability in the front office
*Maybe the best young top d-pairing in the league in Werenski-Jones
*An all around really good top 5 dmen when healthy (Werenski, Jones, Nutivaara, Savard, Murray)
*Have a track record of success with one-year "prove it" contracts with UFAs who want to rehab their career
*Stupidly good top line in Panarin-Dubois-Atkinson

Weaknesses
*Young and streaky, especially on special teams.
*Coaching staff is slow to make changes when they should, and quick to shuffle things when they probably shouldn't
*Several players coming off career bad years (Wennberg, Dubinsky, etc). Will they bounce back?
*The whole "only NHL team whose yet to win a playoff series" thing looming over people's heads
*Injuries to Ryan Murray consistently throw things out of whack
*Outside of Panarin, a lack of gamebreaking offensive skill, both on the team and in the prospect pool
*Panarin and Bob situations
*Our forward mixture is weird. Our "heavies" (Foligno, Anderson, Dubinsky, Jenner--esp the last two) don't play well together, but it's hard to spread them in the lineup without Dubinsky playing with one or more of Milano and Duclair.

Questions
*How do the Panarin and Bob eras end? If traded, when?
*Do we have a second line, or just three good third lines?
*Will injuries sink us?

 

[al secord]

Strength: Zach Hyman

Weakness: Babcock's knees for Zach Hyman.

 

[GoldiFox]

Strengths:
#1 D (Slavin + Hamilton)
Top-4 D (Pesce + Faulk + De Haan)
High-end prospect D (Fox + Bean + Fleury)
Svechnikov + Aho
Head Coach - I was a big skeptic going in but the guys are working hard for Rod Brind'Amour. Can't argue with the feedback so far from the players.

Weaknesses:
Center - Jordan Staal only Center on the roster with more than 10 games of NHL experience at C
Scoring - Relying on rookie scorers in Zykov, Necas, Svechnikov, Foegele, and Wallmark
Goalies - Worst tandem in the NHL and it isn't particularly close for me. Will be the downfall of the Canes this year. McElhinney might be their best bet right now and he is waiver fodder. Darling has the fortitude of single ply toilet paper. Mrazek gets set up the way he wants and beat clean far too often for an NHL starter.

 

[Rebels57]

Disagree. Our first line I agree with but our second line would be most teams first line

Who is your 2nd line?

Lines thread has it as Hertl - Couture - Labanc.

 

[Jerzey Devil]

Strengths:

Coaching
Speed

Weaknesses:

Defense

 

[JoelWarlord]

Strengths:

• Bergevin is well-dressed
• I like Byron and Gallagher and Tatar has been fun to watch.
• Games usually on Tues-Thurs-Sat with a regular schedule, during the Superbowl weekend they play games on Sat and Sun at 2PM EST which is awesome.
• Huge fanbase so there's lots of games on TV and you can always find a stream easily
• Some of the best uniforms in the league with an iconic colour scheme
• Watching games in French helps me keep my French listening skills relatively sharp
• Team is superficially deep at wing with all 4 lines having two wingers with some offensive ability (Tatar/Gallagher - Drouin/Armia - Byron/Lehkonen - Hudon/Shaw plus Scherbak scratched). It's not really a "strength" though because Habs wingers and forwards overall are still bottom 10 despite having relatively OK winger depth.
  
• They should have some intrigue this year depending on how Mete and Kotkaniemi do, I'm concerned they're being rushed but there's a chance they rise to the occasion and give a reason to tune in.
• Strong core of forward prospects who should be ready over the next couple seasons, plus adequate depth on defense.

Weaknesses:

• Cloying and mawkish hour-long ceremonies about the legacy of the Habs that just feel silly during a 25 year cup drought while Philip Danault is the #1 center. At some point they're going to have Desharnais pass the torch to Max Domi or something.
• Huge fanbase also means a huge critical mass of some of the dumbest fans in the league #HIOHF
• Basically irrelevant for fantasy unless it's a super deep league because the Habs will have a bunch of 30-50 point guys and no real standout star. Petry is fantasy relevant until Weber gets back.
• One of the most poorly managed teams in the league, the current GM squandered an excellent young and elite core and is now attempting to start a "rebuild" with a 33 year old #1D and 31 year old #1G being paid a billion dollars until the heat death of the universe.
• Alzner is infuriating to watch because every dumbass on this site knew it would be horrible from day 1
• Despite perception the team isn't actually that "young", most of the core players are in their mid 20s and if a rebuild takes another 2 or 3 seasons it will be difficult to compete with an entire "young" core that's exiting their primes plus 36 year old Weber and 34 year old Price.
• Probably the worst defense in the league and absolutely the bottom of the barrel worst center depth in the league.
  
• Forward group is superficially deep because of the wingers but only Byron and Gallagher are real proven even strength goal scorers, and Tatar is the only real shooter and he's not exactly striking fear into the hearts of the Atlantic division, and they just traded their best PP triggerman for another playmaking winger they'll play at center.
• Power play is mediocre when Weber is healthy because the players and coaches can not help themselves from constantly feeding Weber for low success-rate slapshots (this has been a consistent issue with Montreal dating back to Souray, Markov, and Subban - telegraphed point shots as the core PP strategy)

 

[Gecklund]

Who is your 2nd line?

Lines thread has it as Hertl - Couture - Labanc.

Yep. Couture and Hertl are both fantastic and definitely first level talents. Labanc we will have to see this year but judging by his offseason I believe he will take a huge step this year.

 

[NoShowWilly]

Canucks bottom 6 is supposed to be good defensively so there's that.

 

[WhoTagz]

Rangers:

Strength
======
First line
Rookies
RHD
Center Prospects
D Prospects
PowerPlay




Weakness
=======
Rookies
LHD
Wing Prospects
Penalty Kill
Goaltending
Veterans

 

[Leonardo87]

Rangers

Strengths: KZB (Kreider, Zibanejad, Buchnevich), Shattenkirk, PP is pretty good thanks to these guys, Skjei, Smith lost 21 lbs.

Weaknesses - Marc Staal, Marc Staal, Marc Staal, and Marc Staal.

 

[BonMorrison]

Strengths
- balanced scoring
- top 4 defenseman
- good coaching
- speed
- regular season rinne

Weaknesses
- holding leads
- shallow prospect pool
- playoff rinne
- playoff depth scoring
- lack of gamebreaking offensive talent
- pressure on home ice (jets exploited tf out of this)

 

[Shootertooter]

Long Island/Brooklyn Islanders

Strengths
- UFA's to-be Lee, Eberle and Nelson should pull in a haul at the TDL
- Clean-shaven
- 4th Line Forwards
- 7th D-men in abundance
- Best day-care facilities in the NHL
- Garth Snow as the Very Special Advisor
- Owner's ability to leave Press Interviews within two minutes after start
- Have home-ice advantage in two locations
- Full season of hearing Butch Goring try to pronounce Filppula equals points

Weaknesses
- None

Added strength.....you got rid of that trouble maker John Tavares. (kidding, too soon?)

 

[Shootertooter]

NYR:

Strengths: YOUTH, Center Depth, Defensive depth for the future, Coach who has a knack for developing young players.
Weaknesses: Scoring Wing depth, defense ANCHORED literally by Marc Staal, Adam McQuaid and Smith.

What I'm most looking forward to this season: The trade deadline where we unload a bunch of players for 1st rd picks.

Let's be serious while we are at it, Lundqvist is 36. He is not going to carry this team on his back for anything more than short periods of time. They simply can't be contenders with him as a #1. I'm not saying he is bad, I'm saying he is not Lundqvist at 26-30 who was more than capable of doing that. To expect that is simply delusional. They are going to be a bad team this season at least.

 

[DJJones]

Flames:

Strengths:

Bottom 6 depth (that is so weird too say)
Defense depth

Weakness:
Goaltending
PP until proven otherwise

 

[member 157595]

This is way better when you read it in Babcock's voice

Strengths: Zach Hyman
Weaknesses: Only 1 Zach Hyman

EDIT: Damn you @al secord, you beat me to the punchline.

 

[AfroThunder396]

Devils:

Strengths
Under 25 forwards
PP forwards
Depth defensemen
AHL Prospects with potential

Weaknesses
Top end defensemen (left handed)
Supplemental scoring after Hall/Hischier/Palmieri
Consistent goaltending

 

[Draiskull]

O I L E R S

Strengths: 3 on 3, 4 on 4, 5 on 5
Weakness: 5 on 4, 4 on 5, 5 on 3, 3 on 5

 

[Rebels57]

Yep. Couture and Hertl are both fantastic and definitely first level talents. Labanc we will have to see this year but judging by his offseason I believe he will take a huge step this year.

Im a big fan of Hertl and Couture, but I definitely wouldnt say that line is better than most teams 1st lines. One of the best 2nd lines? Certainly.

 

[nickschultzfan]

Wild
Strengths:
Very deep team in both forwards and defense
Quality puck-movers on the blueline.
Balanced
Consistently good goaltending

Weaknesses:
Lack of superstar forward
Vet players have some miles
Lack of superior ability in single dimension which gives a team identity
Lack of demonstrative elite playoff goaltending

 

[RogerRoger]

Strengths:
Two of the best centers in the league (Barkov & Trocheck)
Top 6
High upside 3rd line

Weaknesses:
The worst 4th line in the league when Mackenzie and Haley are on
Defense is subpar defensively
Luongo's health

Question marks:
Can McCann FO% be above 45%
Will Luongo be healthy?
Can Kiselevich be a good second pairing dman?

 

[Pure Slaughter Value]

Added strength.....you got rid of that trouble maker John Tavares. (kidding, too soon?)

Too soon!