Yeah I guess I just think the fact that Seider and Raymond have already hit and Edvinsson is looking like a hit and Buchelnikov and ASP and Cossa are trending extremely well takes some of the pressure off of what Danielson and Kasper *need* to be.
It takes the pressure off, for sure. But Seider and Raymond have already hit, and we still suck. Ed being a 1D also will help, but we obviously still have major holes in the lineup, and that's with Kane playing like a 1st line winger. So Kane's play will need to be replaced at the least, and DBC too if he is not re-signed / loses a step.
I'm just saying that I think people often forget that every other rebuilding team is also improving, not just us.
Montreal has Demidov coming who is trending extremely well, and Hutson who looks incredible so far as well. Michael Hage also looks great. Fowler also looks like a potential starter for them with similar stats to Augustine. This is on top of 1OA Slafkovsky on the roster and doing well, plus Suzuki who is essentially a younger Larkin and Caufield who is a younger DeBrincat.
CBJ have Johnson, Voronkov and Marchenko as young guys taking the next step; they've got Fantilli who's yet to break out but looks solid, and then guys like Lindstrom and Brindley with immense potential. Not to mention Del Bel Belluz who's looking very good in the NHL.
Flyers have Michkov who will be a superstar, and Luchanko coming up.
These are just a few random examples from the East alone. It's not enough for guys to trend well, some of them have to blow past expectations for us to leapfrog those other teams. That, or Yzerman has to make some robbery trades. I'm not saying it's fair to
expect that out of our young guys, but rather that it's simply a reality of pro sports.