A lot of shit did go down last year which impacted the team for sure: change in ownership,pinto supension,dorion fiasco,norris injured again ect. Was talking about roster on paper objectively without taking consideration of what did happen when we played the season. A lot of people liked our team last year ,even Korpisalo lmao.
And let's not pretend we can't get the same formula( off ice issues) when season start . Just few examples players don't like the coach or new players *Perron lmao*, norris injured again or important player x, player want to be off the team doesnt like here ect, player x having an meh season. So yeah we can't know what will happens but we can't pretend that nothing will happen too.
I see the same problem on this roster as last year as you pointed out we still have thin depth in forward or even defense. The roster is more balanced*complete* then last year but we still have few guys that we can plug on top 9 or top 4 and be okay with it.
Am not trying to be pessimistic, I just don't think the improvement on the roster makes the team better right always it will take time for everyone to gel / find their roles and it's not sure that they will click like most people think here. Ex: Perron can be next Stepan XD, ulmark might have a down year so you never know.
To finish I think the difference maker not including Ulmark here are going to be :
Can Tkachuk Stu find another gear and improve there 200 foot play.
Is Giroux still to produce/be effective in a top 6 role
Can Norris play a full season and at least 75% of the level of his 35g season
Can Pinto be a Top 6 center that will create on his own behind Stu
Will Chabot finally find his game with a decent and veteran Top4 RD
Is the bottom 6 good enough to produce depth scoring
Do we see improvement from Sanderson or does he give us similar season as last two.
So still a lot of questions marks and will say far from a sure thing to be a playoff contender.
But I hope this year is the right one cause we deserve it us fan and few players on the team.
I think the skaters are about the same tbh.
Perron is a bit worse than Tank,
Jensen is a much better fit than Chychrun
Kelly is about the same as Gregor
Kastelic is about the same as Ostapchuk
Joseph and Amadio are about the same
Personally I like Kleven better than Brannstrom, I felt that while Brannstrom did well enough, he introduced issues, he's no a ok guy but he was out best option when in the lineup, he needed to play sheltered mins to maximize his effectiveness but he didn't really provide offense.
We're we see a big improvement is we shouldn't expect a 41 game off ice conduct suspension to Pinto. That's not a normal shit happens occurence, it's happened once in the history of the club.
We can probably expect similar health from Chabot and Norris, better health would be gravy.
There are some potential risks, what if Perron is the next Kubalik, what if Jensen is the next Hamonic, but I feel those risks are relatively low.
I also think it's worth considering we played at a 90 pts pace once Pinto returned, and that group lost Tarasenko (only 18 games played) to the trade deadline and Norris (16 games) to shoulder surgery. If we compare that roster to today's, how do we fair.
We played really loose under DJ, Martin got them playing tighter, eventually. I don't think that can be ignored either.
All that said, a goalie is part of the roster, so while you asked to put the goalie change aside, I don't think that's really an objective way to look at the teams potential.
