Usually you come up with a plan for an identity. Are we going to accept guys who put up lots of points and are weaker at D like Ehlers kfc and Schief or do we get rid of everyone who isn’t great two way players.
Schief is the leader so sets the tone so addressing him first could makes the most sense.
Also would argue Ehlers inability to stay healthy is a bigger problem for the team.
teams can win with a variety of different players or play-styles. it's finding the mix and line-combos that works. ie: kessell was an all offense/no d player, but ended up as a legit conn-smythe candidate w/ the right player mix. Or even Kuznetsov. Malkin is similar too, however id refrain from comparing a generational or near-generational type player at their peak to most NHLers.
getting rid of scheifele ..... have you seen this team in the POs w/o scheifele?
imo we need players to step up and either adapt or elevate their games in the POs. at the end of the day it's a collective effort, however in the past when scheifele was out KC would be the main guy id look to for this given his regular season proficiency, or last year w/ PLD too. & ofc ehlers needs to stop dressing as a Ghost & celebrating Halloween in Spring
looking at some of the top scoring wingers since 17-18, and of course PO samples are smaller so few pts may have big swings, but based on what players have done to-date in those games played
sorting by top-50 in highest reg season points for NHL Wingers:
those wingers reg season ppg avg: 0.86
PO ppg average: 0.75 (doesn't include 3 players w/ 0 gp)
so on average, it seems like the wingers have scored a bit less in the POs. 10 wingers of the top-50 in reg. season scoring had an equal or greater PPG in the POs vs regular season.
of the top-50 top scoring wingers in the nhl since 17-18, the biggest diff in PO vs RS ppg
KC 43rd worst
Ehlers worst