I think Ostapchuk is going to be a middle six shut down player.Man, you could go on forever... we had so many of them... Milan Michalek, Jared Cowen, Pascal Leclaire, Bobby Ryan, Matt Murray, Peter Regin, etc... so many players that fans ended up disliking because they got diminished by injuries.
It's the nature of this sport, not really easy on the body
I'm holding hope that Norris is back to his former self and never looks back, but it is "hope", it's possible but far from guaranteed
I was hoping that Matt Murray became an healthy player so the contract that Dorion gave him didn't become an anchor... false hope
If Norris could ever go back to that 2021-22 level, that would be gigantic for the rebuild and I'd be quite more optimistic
Tkachuk - Stutzle - Batherson
?????? - Norris - ??????
Greig - Pinto - ??????
We'd still have 3 big holes in the top-9 though (I mean post Giroux and Perron)
How is it f***ing possible that we don't even have a full top-9 of the future after missing the playoffs 7 years?
But I mean we also have Chabby, Sandy, and Yak on the back end, and Ulmark in net, to show for some of those higher picks.
We’re always going to have to rotate a few guys into the middle six every year, most teams do, and I don’t think Pinto will remain a third line player for long.