When you see the top 9 actually written out like that my gut reaction is it looks woefully inadequate. But need to be patient. Have to see just how far Poitras and Lysell (and maybe Merkulov) can progress, how well Frederic and perhaps Geekie too can handle extra responsibility, how much a 36-year old Marchand has left in the tank, just how good Lindholm can be for us.
Don't think it's being too negative to say that the forward group as is isn't going to be good enough for the spring in October. Sweeney has basically admitted as much. But that's ok. It doesn't have to be. There's time. I suspect the pretty stacked defense plus Sway will be relied upon to keep things tight in the first 2-3 months while our offense sorts itself out. We see how that plays out and adjust accordingly.
Every year in his short coaching career Monty has had quite a different challenge to solve. No reason to bet against him getting the job done again next season.
I think they're (we're) hoping one of Merkulov or Lysell surprises everyone and becomes an 18 - 22 goal guy -- that would be really helpful, but probably not likely.
I always play the "how many goals for each guy" game and I always overestimate, but I'll try to be realistic here:
Pasta - 47
Marchand - 24
Zacha - 23
Lindholm - 21
Frederic - 20
Coyle - 18
Geekie - 18
Brazeau - 13
Lysell - 12
Beecher - 10
Jones - 8
Kastelic - 7
That's 221 (and all seemingly attainable, IMO) --- without counting other forwards that will be in the lineup from time to time.
Only two teams scored over 300 last season.
Assume McAvoy, Lohrei, Zadorov combine for 25 and Carlo, Peake, Lindholm another 15 that's a total of: 261
Which is pretty solid, but not exactly the 87 Oilers, either.
(Again, not counting other forwards/defensemen)
