Devils had a 49 point improvement 2021-22 to 2022-23. It's not the most likely of outcome by any means, but it's not crazy unrealistic. That's not a particularly strong division, the 4 teams ahead of them all have reasons to feel shaky about them as quickly as next year.
Maybe Detroit improves rapidly, it would help if Yzerman took a more aggressive approach than passively waiting around to see if enough prospects pull through. Sounds like Anaheim is saying "we don't need the kids to learn how to play competitive hockey and come in 9th for three straight years, now that we are in a post-tank phase, we are being upfront about what our goal is and we will take steps to get there". Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. But that's the difference, Yzerman has said that we're done tanking, but we are still preaching patience, etc.
Well I didn't ask you did I.
It's 98% unrealistic. There is this small Jim Carey meme chance of them getting remotely close to a playoff spot.
Larkin is in year 2 of 8 and is now openly questioning the boss.lol Guess he didn't get the memo about waiting for Asp, Buch, MLB, Danielsson, Cossa and Augustine to all arrive, develop and become great NHL players (which I think half of them will). Patience Dylan, patience!
Veleno has been a full time NHL player for about four seasons now. I expect he certainly will be again to start next season. After that who knows given his contract will be up, he's in UFA years and players on 4th lines are pretty expendable. So after a certain age the league gets bored of them if they haven't made an additional step forward so there's a spot for the next guy. He was not a bad fit for the Hawks but not something that is necessarily viewed as part of the future.
It's not weird at all. Being a company man and standing up for the front office would be weird. Saying the players want to compete and are trying hard but that the front office should be trying hard to compete as well, is what you want from a captain.
It's an odd look. Very rare. Could be nothing. Could end in him being traded. Could end in Yzerman listening to his captain and having a great offseason via trade/UFA?
I just saw 17 points in his last 2 seasons. He was one I always cheered for back in the day. Thought he was a great pick. Chicago needs to get Blumel out of Dallas!
This is the natural thing when you have a 9-year rebuild. You can get Larkin on board to wait for someone like Seider, who is only five years younger than himself. Now guys like Seider and Raymond are there and somewhat "arrived" as top line level players. But now you continue to tell him "Hey, just wait around for Sandin-Pellika, wait around for Danielson" and he's going to start to wonder why he's waiting around for guys that are like 9 years younger than him to both get there and then arrive, and if he's even part of this supposed "timeline" while years of his prime continue to tick away... he watches his peers battle it out in the postseason while he sits at home.
I see your point but he makes 3.4 and you can only bury about 1.2 (roughly). So it'd be over 2 mill against cap. I get the not spending against the cap but when you see a team not making playoffs with cap space and the captain is saying the team was down after no TDL moves. Might be time to spend more and make a swing or two. I'm an Oiler fan so I really don't know what cap space is. And our books during the decade of darkness were always full of bad players on too long contracts and buyouts. It does bite you in the ass later.
"I looked up and down our locker room, with like 14 guys over the age of 26 and looked at each of those guys in the eye and told them that 'we're all just placeholders until Yzerman can have 15 of his own draft picks on the roster and to trust the Yzerplan', so I don't see the big deal"
