And this folks, is Doug Armstrongs thinking. We should make the playoffs but at the same time we can't get a top ten draft pick because which is understandable but at the same time is not, given whatever is being said on the magic board and the voodoo that Army has sold the front office on. This is how our franchise is being ran.
I don’t know I think it’s pretty safe to assume we can check most boxes with what’s currently in the organization and tracking well mind you.
The only hole I can definitively see we couldn’t fill internally or pretty painlessly via UFA would be #1 D. Now that’s a large hole, but a lot of teams have filled it without getting a top 10 pick to do so. I’m pretty confident Broberg is a pretty good top 4 d man for the future, I’m confident 55 is as well - the injury scares me claiming he has 4 or 5 more high end years in him - but barring any major procedure I’d expect him to be a top 4 guy for 3-4 more years. Lindstein has a pretty good shot at it. We can fill a #4 maybe #3 via UFA if needed.
Forward group wise, a #2C could be an issue depending on when and if Dvorsky can reach that level. But I’m pretty confident aside from that one spot we will not need to look externally for a forward unless we are shooting extremely high, bringing in competition for a young guy, or bridging a gap.
Goaltending is a little more of a dice roll, but amongst any u25 goaltenders I’d bet Hofer has proven more than most if not all.
I know we all want an elite talent to add to the group. Kyrou and Thomas are pretty high end players and they’re signed long term at probably the best time we could’ve. Cap flexibility is not going to be an issue to supplement the core we currently have and the young one that we presumably built in the last 2-3 drafts.
I think the current core you can pretty firmly place as Thomas, Kyrou, Broberg, and Holloway. Parayko and Buch are probably remnants of the last core that have high-end years left in them.
Then we have another core presumably forming with guys like Snuggerud, Dvorsky, Stenberg and Lindstein (excluding Jiricek as I’d like to see a clean bill of health for an extended period of time).
Yes this middling could take another year or two. But would be even more drastic is not giving the current group of 23-26 year olds who have shown well a chance at competing at all and trying to sink the ship to play for another 2-3 years out to hope we can strengthen the next core.
I don’t mind the Blues wanting to be competitive because I think it’s a really good bar of seeing where guys like Bolduc/Holloway/Snuggerud/Dvorsky can fit in.
Tanking isn’t sunshine and rainbows like it looks like without undergoing it. There’s a real chance Chicago drafts a can’t miss prospect and can’t get it together in time and turns into Ottawa, Detroit, Buffalo and those groups until that player is 27-30. That’s not a recipe for success at all and that would really be a drag when the only two days you care about is the draft lottery day and draft day.
