If Pinto was productive we'd be fine, the guy has been ice cold.
3rd liners need to pace for 30+ pts too
Comparing paces last season vs this year after "the big 4" :
Tarasenko 59 pts vs Norris 59 pts
Pinto 54 pts vs Gaudette 39 pts
Norris 49 pts vs Pinto 25 pts
Joseph 40 pts vs Greig 22 pts
Greig 30 pts vs Amadio or Cousins 18 pts
That's quite the contrast
Reality is the forward group isn't actually that good... we have 5 total 70 point + forward seasons... only 3 forwards have accomplished the feat, and 1 of them most likely never will again.
we have 2 first line forwards, 3 top 6 forwards... we are missing at least 1 top 6 forward, preferably 2... or, 1 more superstar...
I've said it before, are we going to continuously replace 1 or 2 top 6 spots with 35+ year old declining players? Where is the Giroux replacement? Where is the Antoine Vermette or JGP playing 3rd line minutes putting up 40+ points?
Stutzle, Tkachuk and Batherson are absolutely all first liners. Among all forwards who have played at least 50 games since 2022-23, they rank in PPG :
Stutzle : 21st
Tkachuk : 35th
Batherson : 86th
Now the problem is Giroux is 36 y/o and Norris has had a lot of shoulder injury problems. His numbers aren't very good recently as a result
Giroux : 57th
Norris : 153th
Problem is behind them... Pinto just turned 24 y/o and has missed 1 season and a half... he is not producign well right now, same with Greig who is still young. Perron is also 36 y/o... Not much behind that.