Two things.
1) This team is not a Cup contender as currently constructed. Both the fan base and the front office have to stop fooling themselves. If absolutely nothing else, the defensive core is just not ready yet as half of it is still in the AHL.
2) Everyone needs to take a real hard look at the over-23 year olds on this roster and decide which of them can be moved, and then act on it, because running this back and trying again next year and trying to talk yourself into another deadline where you pay exorbitant prices to rent to fix your very real problems is a terrible idea. We have way too much money tied up in non-performers and it's hurting our ability to ice a real contender in the future.
I've said it again and again, Kreider is not your alpha lead dog when you are playing against elite teams. Too many people bought into the narrative that just because he's been here a long time, he's some unmovable, un-demotable saint who should be captain. No the f*** he shouldn't. He's a career underperformer who until age 30 had never broken 30 goals before despite having the talent to be a year-in, year-out 70 point player. Plagued with inconsistencies. And I know everyone loved his 50 goal outburst this season but it's an outlier. It's not who he is. We are now seeing the inconsistency again.
Mika sadly has way too many down periods as well. He's either on fire and scoring 2 points per game or he's nothing. And if he's not on fire for your playoffs then he's useless. Unfortunately we are now in a box where he is our #1 center for forever and we can't get out of that, so we have to fix the roster in other ways.
Something has to give. You are going to need to find value in a trade and unless Kakko or Lafreniere are bringing back MacKinnon (they aren't) then you are going to have to explore winning a trade of a vet for an up and coming forward. They are going to have to seek out the Zibanejad deal again or they are going to be in trouble moving forward, they are going to be locked into a core of 30 year olds who can't win (Kreider, Zibanejad, Panarin) but a core of 22 year olds who have no center.
Too many people on here are too attached to the veterans. I remember the push back I used to get when I suggested moving Tony f'n DeAngelo after his 53 point season in 2019-2020. I said, you can probably get a young prospect center for this 24 year old who is coming off a 15 goal, 38 assist shortened campaign. NO NO NO some posters said, who do we have who can replace his output? I said Adam Fox. No! They said. Adam Fox isn't proven. The very next year Fox wins the Norris.
Time to look ahead and stop looking in the past. We are now at the very same juncture with Trouba. I'm not suggesting Trouba is going to get himself booted off the team for fighting and being a jerk but the scenario is the same - stop burying our heads in the sand saying Trouba is irreplaceable because Schneider isn't proven. Schneider is coming for Trouba's role fast, just like Fox was coming for DeAngelo's role. We need to be PROACTIVE with moving some of these vets for value before they have none.
I'm not saying Trouba has to be the one to go. But we need to probably make a hard decision about one of the higher paid players to give us some flexibility to go get another difference making impact young forward/center. And I don't see how Panarin or Zibanejad are getting moved. That leaves Trouba and Kreider.
