Upcoming season looks to be more of a development year, though there is definite dark horse potential if they can make it to the trade deadline in playoff position. Final year of major dead cap, so they can finally start looking at adding players with term when they become available during the season. Guerin has gathered a pretty significant amount of 25 and 26 draft capital and a full prospect cupboard to play with.
When the top guys are healthy, it’s a squad that can compete with anyone, the guys are all really hard workers and a good blend of two way players with skill to go with it. The depth has taken a hit recently though and rookies are going to get prominent roles this season so I expect consistency challenges.
Time is ticking though, Brodin seems to keep getting better with age, but that can’t last forever and the D corps that has been solid for over a decade has slowly been weakening, the Faber addition was a huge boon, but sooner than later we need another top 4 D.
Goalie is pretty much all in on Wallstedt for the future, I think most feel ok with that, but it’s a gamble, many fans here still remember when we went all in on Harding only for his MS diagnosis to derail the position for years.
I will say, this is a much more entertaining team to watch than most previous iterations. Kaprizov and Boldy are captivating in their creativity, at least the fans are treated to that.