I have always feared that when Lou finally left as GM, he was going to leave this organization totally stripped. I thought he had an excellent off-season bringing in guys like Schneider and Brunner and it was encouraging that there was talk of making space to bring up one of the young defenseman. I was under the impression that meant a guy like Urbom, Gelinas or Merrill, not rotating Larsson and Fayne as the 6th. Here we are 7 games into the season and I can already see the possibility of the worst case scenario playing out.
Larsson hasn't taken the next step. Actually, hes probably taken a step back at a point in his development we really ought to be seeing major progress. I hope he's a major part of our future but there's certainly some doubt creeping in about his ceiling.
One has to assume Fayne is going to leave as a UFA at the end of the season with the way he's been treated. This one is still the biggest head scratcher for me. He's been a major part of our defensive core when they had their most success under this head coach.
Urbom is gone. In the long run, that may not prove to be a big deal but I would still rather watch him make rookie mistakes than Volch or Salvidor.
We don't have a 1st round pick because of one of the most asinine asset management decisions ever
Josefson looked promising in preseason but hasn't been given much of a chance to do anything in favor a guys like Gionta
Schneider and Brunner see no reason to sign on long term at the end of next season. Then what do we have?
I don't get it, Lou has always said building a successful pro team is having a similar balance of freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors contributing as you would have on a college team. Right now, it feels like a lot of the more talented freshman and sophs are sitting in favor of seniors who will be working a day job next year.