On paper, our roster is better this season than in our 2nd season. Blaming it on coaching could be easy. You can always make excuses if you want .. LOL
Of course, I agree with you, though. The roster stinks.
That roster two years ago was a high end forechecking team, we now have a low end skill team. The guys that used to be our best checkers are mostly past their "best by" dates, and we're now caught halfway towards skill, with largely too old and too young players. Yeah on paper, a lot of the players are better in the current team, but it's more of a losing battle. Excuse this ridiculous analogy, but we had a chance vs Mike Tyson in a wrestling match, and we decided we would rather exchange punches.
We have too many middling players who are getting overpaid or underperforming. In some cases, both. I think we are stuck for another two seasons until those contracts are done. This basically prohibits us from going after any big fish. And then there is Stephenson.
I don't see the team getting any better till the 2027-28 season when majority of these contracts are off the books. If Francis actually looked at our current state, he has to see this. The best thing to do in start adding to the prospect pool over this period. I would seriously consider moving out Bjorkstrand, Gourde, Oleksiak as I think they will get a positive return. If not this TDL then atleast the off-season (not Gourde ofcourse as he is a UFA). Buyout Bura or Gru. I would love to trade the other but I doubt we will be willing to take that on. Buyout the remaining of the two in the off-season after next.
I can't see Francis making this many moves anyway. But he can't just sit on his hands and pray that things go away.
One thing that sucks is that when a team is up against the cap like this, you have to hope that some of the prospects really pan out, and do it early enough to contribute while they're still cheap.
Otherwise it's just going to be the same ol situation for a few years while waiting for certain contracts to expire. Granted, even if they don't stick in the NHL at least they'll play hungry.
After next season, the long term deals still on the books are:
Actually good:
McCann
Beniers
Montour
Dunn
Larsson (debatable but I think he's currently still good, we'll see in a couple years)
Daccord
Bura and Gru will be in the final seasons and can be buried, bought out, or retained away.
The final one is Stephenson. In a quickly rising cap it doesn't seem that determinative. We could be a good team, or not, but it probably won't be because of that.
I think we are probably going to have to wait 2-3 years before making a push and signing big fish, but not so much because of clearing cap, cap isn't that hard to come by right now. It's because the team needs to get young players going and put the future on display a little bit. It's harder to imagine this club as much of a destination right now. Or maybe you'll have a big fish really want to move to Seattle, that could happen too.
