Reimer <> Talbot
Perron <> Berggren
Sprong <> Motte
Ghost <> Gustafsson
Walman <> Edvinsson
Those are pretty much the on-ice roster changes. We'll if something happens on the RD side.
And Talbot should be the starter Goalie, not just a plug like Reimer was....
I would add to this quickly:
- Probably safe to assume to some degree that 2024 Raymond will be better than 2025 Raymond and hopefully take another step. The same assumption can be made for Seider and Edvinsson.
- We just watched Berggren absolutely demolish the AHL, by and far the best offensive player on our team, and probably near the top in the league with 24g and 56pt in 53 games as well as dominate in the playoffs with clutch play after play - the last time we had someone like this was Nyquist and before that Hudler as an overripe AHL prospect (coincidently, both of them were considered soft and weak as well).
In both extended stints over the last two years, Burger has been a ..near a 0.5ppg guy? - Burger is 23, Gus was 23-24, Huds was 22-23. Don't sleep on Berggren after that last season in the AHL, to step and match Sprong, if not outright Perron's production. We overlook him and write him off, but he should be a really nice middle six, skilled winger with 50-60pt upside as he matures over the next few years. Berggren is good and competitive, and capable. He needs the opportunity and space and letting the corpse of David Perron and plug Sprong to bow out and not find a stopgap 2yr vet to take that spot, leaves that opportunity for him to step in.
At this point, I don't think we need to add to our offense with the assumption that Berggren is taking a larger role. We've rounded out our bottom six with Motte. The only difference I would make to what you've laid out is that I think Fabbri finds himself in the Top 6 and the Burger - Copp - Ras line ends up being the 3rd line; with Fisher, Veleno, Mott as the 4th.
Our offense - as in our forwards - is not worse. That is hyperbole. We have Kane all year and hopefully working to build himself back up with the offseason. We have Raymond follow his breakout in the 2nd half and into the Worlds and I truly believe in Berggren as Nyquist 2.0 who is taking a full time role. Combined with Motte to take off some of the burden of PK and tougher defensive assignments, we should be better than we were last year.