where? please show me the talent that can keep us out of the bottom 5 without kap and zucc. Its not fantasy, it is very real that we fall drastically to the bottom of the league. as others have said, our goalies may have gotten worse and could completely poop the bed. Rossi might come up and not be ready, all those career years could of been a one and done and everyone regresses. I dont see the too much talent you speak of with Fiala and Kap not on this team.
I think it's more a question of priorities and not letting next season dictate roster decisions.
With Fiala gone. Where is the secondary scoring coming from? Boldy hopefully does as a lot of us expect but who else?
I dont have the information handy to know if a team has done that or not, i assume not super easy to do though. The idea of being bad this year has a lot to do with Kap possibly not being here so yes if he is gone this year and we are bad and then he magically comes back i could see us easily being 1 bad year and right back up to playoffs.
Patience, next year's roster isn't complete yet. Guerin said he's watching the market, and could sign a top 6 forward. xxxx-Rossi-Boldy.
Yet you see teams do it again and again. Just goes to show that ownership has different priorities... playoff revenue matters to them, as does icing a competitive team in order to sell ST's.
He said we currently have too much talent to be bottom 5 with Fiala, Kap and Zucc out. I dont see it, Rossi and Beckman are potential but still unproven so thats hoping for it. Boldy should as we expect produce but as we saw in the playoffs, he could get targeted and shutdown until he learns to fight through it.
I do think it's a distinct possibility and if it wasn't for the buyout hits I'd be less against it. Under the circumstances though... hard to justify it, even if the team's in a playoff spot at the deadline.
The pessimists always dominate the off season talk here, this went from the reality of Fiala being gone to an illusion of the top 3 scorers all being gone and not replaced for a whole season to make us a bottom 5 team, why even bother with that thought experiment?
Goligoski torpedoed, Merrill and Kulikov were just okay. Spurgeon and Dumba have been injury prone - leaving really Middleton and Brodin as guys you can count on. Defense was actually 16th for GA. Hoping for O'Rourke or Hunt to develop quicker.
two different talent levels. Rossi, for all that he needs to work on a few things, is a realistic option to pencil into the middle six this year, and possibly the top 6 going forward. Beckman has a lot of work to do. It looks like he has continued to grow, but he is lacking bulk, strength, and Rossi's abundant skillset. To me, he is a long shot to be on the team this year, and maybe even next year.
I think a lot of fans are at least concerned with Kaprizov's VISA situation and the fact that the goaltending is at least questionable now. A lot of goaltenders pretty much drop off around where Fleury is at. Fleury hasn't gotten worse yet - but that's a huge yet. I also think there isn't a lot of excitement because there hasn't been a lot of changes - which on one hand isn't bad, but on the other hand isn't good. There are some holes still in the roster and they created a bigger one with a lot of questions moving forward. I don't see it being pessimistic, but cautionary about thinking last season was the norm.
It was the best season in franchise history, it’s obviously not the norm, but it would take 20 extra straight up losses to drop us down to bottom 5, Fiala’s super inflated WAR was 3 last year. If you consider Rossi replacement level, you still need to find massive drops all across the lineup to get there. Goaltending was the biggest underperformer last year already, it can get worse definitely, but it’s already replacement level so any acquisition at least has potential for improvement. We already struggled with injuries and Covid last year, it would take an exponential amount more in the up coming season to see a drop due to that.
not if you are not replacing the missing offense.
i agree two different skill sets. I am optimistic Rossi can produce 40ish this year IF he makes the team right out of camp and sticks. Beckman I dont see as a 4th liner so until Greenway and/or Foligno are gone i dont see him having a spot on the big club.
its a discussion board, we discuss the possible outcomes. Until Kap is actually in USA ill have reasons to wonder what this team will do without him on it.
Not even a little concerned
What if the whole team lands on IR?
I don't want to say anything is outside the realm of possibility, but even without Kaprizov and Fiala, I don't think they end up bottom 5. But hey, crazy things happen, and if that happens organically, that's fine. Great even.
