No need for hyperbole here, questioning what will happen if all of our 'ifs' do not go well doesn't mean anyone is on the ledge. Even as a Stanley Cup finalist last year, we did not wrap up a playoff spot until the last week of the season, so there are no regular season guarantees for this season either.
That said, Sather has an entire summer to improve the roster, I have to believe the team we see now is not the same one that will go into battle in October.
People keep saying this. I don't see anything to indicate that is what will happen. What do you think can happen between now and camp? After the RFA's sign there will be roughly 2 million in cap space.
What realistic improvements do you think can be made at this point? If a guy like Setoguchi signs for between 1 and 1.5, that is about the best improvement we can hope for.
If we trade Staal (our best trade chip) now, we need his replacement in the return package, and the forward would have to be cheap enough to fit under the cap.
We don't have the futures to trade. No 1st in 2015. Or are we looking to not have a 1st four years in a row by giving up the 2016 1st?
Joe Thornton would cost a ton in assets and cap hit. He isn't a "the guy" player anymore, Pavelski scored 40 goals. We don't have that here. O'Reilly isn't going anywhere. Spezza got traded already. Wouldn't really want any of the usual suspect anyway.
Where are the improvements coming from that would drastically alter the makeup of the roster from what it is now?
The best we can hope for is the guys on league minimum deals step up and fill roles and become useful depth players. Hope for continued development from the young guys. Hope that Dan Boyle doesn't decline hard right before our eyes. And hope that with the spare approx. 2 mil. in cap space they can add a guy like Setoguchi and still leave enough cap space to operate during the season.
They are going to have to roll the dice and hope the "ifs" pan out. Every team has the "ifs". I would have argued the Rangers could have missed the playoffs completely last summer but they got to the Final.
I'm not banking on Sather fixing the situation he got himself into. He could have done what other teams do and negotiate contracts mid-season. He could negotiate team friendly long-term deals with young players like other teams do, instead of trying to bend them over and give them 2 year bridge deals that end up backfiring because their next contracts will be larger. He allowed half the team to become free agents both UFA and RFA at the same time. "Fixing" it will mean trading more futures, he has already sacrificed enough futures.
Gorton and Clark have done a decent job finding undrafted free agents and later round picks to restock the system. But, can't rely on that forever.