They didn’t have 15 more points than the Bs because they don’t care about the regular season.
They are perfectly happy throwing in a cheap backup for 25-30 games while spending the extra money on an everyday player who will impact the playoffs more.
Narrow minded take for this year. Ullmark won the Vezina last year. We all knew Sway was the future(not so future top 5 goalie in the NHL), but weren't sure he could handle 50+ games.(in fact we still don't know)
They wanted to trade Ullmark, but he did not want to go West and if you don't have a dance partner......
No cap room means no ability to improve at camp or the trade deadline. Any treasonable fan knows this was a bridge year out of Cap Hell.
I'm angry about the compete level and coaching. If you can't run and gun a team, you have to adapt and Monty shows no ability to have the team play more than one style.
That being said, you have the 100% right idea for next year when it's Sway/Bussi and 25M to spend on a #1 center and some more competent -57M/yr players.(why do we never sign guys like Trocheck?,)