Regarding team defense... I see some praise but I think it comes down to finally having NHL coaching (still no idea what DJ Dorion hockey was) and sacrificing a bit of offense, but more importantly, much better goaltending.
5v5 :
2023-24 : 59.95 CA/60 (19th), 29.29 SA/60 (19th), 2.94 GA/60 (30th), 2.64 xGA/60 (23rd), 0.8995 SV% (30th)
2024-25 : 58.30 CA/60 (17th), 27.56 SA/60 (18th), 2.42 GA/60 (21st), 2.36 xGA/60 (7th), 0.912 SV% (17th)
PK :
2023-24 : 8.07 xGA/60 (14th), 0.826 SV% (32nd)
2024-25 : 8.62 xGA/60 (25th), 0.853 SV% (15th)
So looking at the defensive numbers, the improvement seems to come from goaltending... and the eye test confirms. Also, we score way less at 5v5 with 2.04 GF/60 (29th) vs 2.50 GF/60 last season and we are less dangerous (26th with 2.3 xGF/60 vs 18th with 2.55 xGF/60 last season) so yeah, sacrificing some ES offense to give up less ES scoring chances against.
I don't think there's any way to look at the numbers and think "this is a good team". We had some stretches with elite goaltending and the team was able to string together some wins but outside of these 3-4 win streaks... nothing suggests that we're much better than we were. The difference is coaching and goaltending IMO, which was the priority where this team needed to improve.
Amadio has played the right way all year imo. Nice to see him get rewarded more consistently. Doubling Joseph's production this year.
A decent signing in the end, still sucks that we had to lose a 3rd round pick in the process, Alfie knows how badly we need picks/prospects (but with the current scouting department, would it even be productive?)
Joseph had 65 pts in 139 games with Ottawa, I wonder if Amadio can beat that production in the 3 years he'll be there. Amadio doesn't PK like Jos but at least he has similar defensive metrics at ES. When a team makes a roster changes and you identify who replaces who, I think it's more vs what the last player was doing rather than what he does in the future, although that can become frustrating when that player breaks out even more like a Zibanejad or a Mark Stone lol