The team has zero leadership without Landy and EJ, that much is painfully obvious. They set the tone. Landy was the driver and the work ethic guy, and EJ was the glue guy that supported everyone and kept things light.
Then they brought in 3 lazy bums who aren't used to being held accountable, and the remaining leaders haven't quite figured out how to get things going, so now we're in this mess.
The C depth needs to be completely re-worked. I don't wanna hear about keeping Kadri and JTC, they priced themselves out of here by winning a cup. We were never going to be able to keep them, it is what it is.
Replacing Newhook with Colton was a good move, but I think Colton needs to be 2LW to really work out here. We will be fine with Rants, Nuke, Lehky and Colton as top-6 wingers.
Where we aren't fine, is RyJo on the team at all. Drouin and Tatar are trash. Wood is way too expensive for what he brings, what a brutal contract that is. Comparatively, we could have grabbed guys like Motte or ZAR for under 1mil to provide the same thing.
The 4h line is fine and never an issue. Cogs, LOC and Oloffson have been fantastic and done what we needed them to do. Pavel and Tufte can slot in there and not detract from what that line brings.
Lehky-MacK-Rants
Colton- ____ - Nuke
_____ - _____ - _____
Cogs-Olof-LOC
This is what works, and the only parts worth keeping. Need a playmaking 2C, a competent 3C and two 3rd line wingers. Kovalenko could be one, but he's far away. Tufte could be another, but would need more time to gel.
As for the D, only Makar and Toews are untouchable. You can't keep all 3 of Byram, G and Manson. Realistically, you keep Bo and let him play the left side. A guy like Marino or Pesce would be the ideal 2RD and partner for Byram. Peeke is probably the most realistic opttion though. The 3rd pair doesn't matter at all. Just fill it with at least 1 guy that will eat heavy PK minutes, and the other can be a mix of the Malinkis, JJs, Jones' and Clurmans of the world.
All in all, it's a mess but it's not an unfixable mess. Just use this year to reset the roster and come out strong next season with a re-vamped team hungry to erase this year's dumpster fire
