Well Wood and Boq were probably top 5 on the team in terms of pure speed up ice.
And we've replaced them with Taffoli and maybe Foote or Nosek. All of whom are below average skaters(or so seems to be the scouting report). If Holtz cracks the lineup, then even more so.
Now team identity can be a nebulous thing. A fast team can still have physical players, and a physical team can still try to play fast, at least at times. But, contrary to the tweet, I thought we did have an identity last year, and I think we gave some of that up heading into next year, in favor of something different.
As long as we have two Hughes brothers, Bratt, Hischier, Mercer, and at least a couple of depth pieces that can skate like McLeod and even Haula to an extent, our team identity is going to remain fast and smooth skaters.
I do worry that the overall effectiveness of the bottom lines might be hampered with regard to our defensive system, but that may end up not mattering too much. Nosek is elite at getting the puck out of the zone so it's hard to say a line with him on it got worse defensively.
The 3rd line is probably where we might see this the most. If it ends up being Palat-Haula-Holtz/Toffoli then yeah that's definitely a slower line than what we were used to last year, but I could see that playing to the strengths of those players more anyway. I could also easily see Mercer, Meier, or Bratt spending a decent amount of time on the "3rd" line depending on how much they want to spread out the offense so while I definitely have some concerns about the speed element, I think it will work out ok.
