Avs were 14th in team D last year, going by goals against. The gave up 236 goals, for 2.87 GAA. The best defensive team, LA, gave up 202, or 2.46 GAA. The worst was NYI at 293 goals and 3.57 GAA. So we are just better than the median, and a fair bit better than the mean. And yes, this is affected by goalies. But ours actually only played about average or a bit above., with Varly sitting 14th in SV% and Bernier at 26th, among qualified keepers (total of 51 with ~26+ games played).
I do not think it should be counted as a weakness any more. But it should also not be counted as a strength yet. At least not until we see the steps forward than many are expecting from the kids. But even if they simply stagnate, the D should be a bit better by virtue of having Cole, who pushes one of Nemeth/Barbs to nacho duty, and makes it less likely we get 112 games from a combo of Lindholm/Alt/Mironov/Warsofsky/Seimens/Bigras. Yes, I know some of them are gone...the point is with Cole, even if they were still around they would be less likely to get ice time. Downside is that it will make it that much harder for Meloche or Timmins to get meaningful minutes with the Avs. Unless of course one of the scrubs or kids earns a full time spot....which is in itself an improvement over last year.
