Here is where I sit at the moment with this team (I am far less optimistic since Hayes, but whatever):
- the goaltending is the same as it was. I am not an alarmist at this position, because nobody knows what any goaltender will be next season. You know Nathan MacKinnon will be great. Connor Hellebuyck? Maybe. That said, I don't want to run it back. Trade Jarry for some other struggling goaltender and maybe you can add other assets to the mix.
- I was a Joseph booster, mostly because he seemed to have chemistry with Letang. And the players liked him. The coaches hated him, though. So, he had no chance. If Grzelcyk is here for one year, fine. Pickering might be ready in a year to take that spot. Aho is a guy I like, and he might be better than Grzelcyk in actuality. He is good insurance. I still think St. Ivany should have a spot on that third pairing because he brings a lot of what we need on defense. I would re-sign Pettersson, but I am not sure Dubas will.
- my biggest issue is up front. Most of our best young players and prospects are up front, except for Pickering and Blomqvist. While we did not "block" their path necessarily with long-term contracts, we have definitely blocked them. There is no way Mike Sullivan plays Sam Poulin, Vasili Ponomarev, Ville Koivunen or Brayden Yager (even if they all shine in camp) over players like Kevin Hayes, Anthony Beauvillier, Blake Lizotte, Lars Eller or Noel Acciari. The moves have not only ended any talk of a rookie making the team, but Puljujarvi is now going to struggle to get playing time. Heck, if we sign Tarasenko, Puustinen is out of the lineup too.
The problem with the plan is, if you are taking on contracts for picks, or bringing in cheap players to sell off for picks, you are still blocking younger players with more upside. So, are you really improving your future outlook? Also, this plan might actually work with someone other than Mike Sullivan as coach. Because a different coach might actually play Koivunen over Beauvillier, or Yager over Lizotte, if they have earned it. This coach? No chance.
So, I am very meh with this plan. Am I happy they stopped trading away draft picks? Yes, of course. But you can actually improve a team without trading draft picks. By making hockey trades, which used to be known as trades when I was a kid watching hockey. Now, everybody (GMs and teams included) seem to be obsessed with windows, two-year, five-year plans, fitting timelines, et al. It is all nonsense to me.
Whether you have Sidney Crosby, Macklin Celebrini, Tim Stutzle or Ryan O'Reilly as your top center, the goal should be the same. Improve the team and try to win more games than you did the year before. You can take a more micro or macro approach to getting there, but we are currently in a climate with extemes.
When the salary cap era first began, everybody was in agreement that the way to maintain success over the long haul with a hard cap was to incorporate ELCs into the lineups. For a bit, that was the way a lot of teams were doing it. But things have changed over time, and so teams with great prospect pools over-marinate them some of the time and end up losing an asset for nothing. That has happened with the Kings, that has happened with the Jets, and more will follow suit. Teams with shallow pools have abandoned the concept of ELCs helping the team, for whatever reason. There are a lot of teams with cap issues whose way out of it would most easily be by playing a rookieor young player. But they rarely do. Nick Robertson would fill that hole in Toronto left by Bertuzzi, but will they play him? Nope. Brendan Brisson is ready for the NHL, so will Vegas put him in as a potential Marchessault replacement? No chance.
My point with all of this is, when Dubas said he wanted to "get younger", he actually meant he wanted to get more assets instead of less. For what purpose? For the purpose of eventually trading them yet again for immediate help. There was never an intention to actually get younger. The youth makes an impact on the ice, not on prospects lists. Detroit has what many people say is the best prospects pool in the league right now. The GM keeps adding older players and clearly prefers to leave the kids "marinate".
Eventually, a kid like Rutger McGroarty comes along and realizes he has no future in his organization. And people are quick to demonize him because he should know his role and shut his mouth. But he is right. The Jets have great prospects, but that is all they are until proven otherwise.
Until Mike Sullivan is no longer employed by this organization, younger players have no shot. That is the bottom line. Dubas and co. had a strong draft and are preparing for more good ones down the line.
Meanwhile, we are stuck in neutral ON the ice, where it matters most.
In the event the Tarasenko signing is legit, would they move Rakell or Rust to LW and bump DOC to the third line, or simply put Rakell or Rust (probably Rakell) on the third line?
Tarasenko would play LW, his less preferable position, with Crosby and Rust. That is what Mike Sullivan does. He is hierarchical. Always has been.