On paper, I would have said the 2017-2018 squad was arguably better, albeit they massively underperformed. I'll definitely grant the wings are much better now, however. Rackell has been a great addition.
I think the thing is that even playing as well as Sid and Geno are now, they're still 4 years older. Letang looks like he can't handle the amount of minutes we need him to do, the top 4 blueline is uneven, the bottom 6 is... problematic at times, and while I like how our roster is constructed now, there's massive questions that remain in terms of it coming together. I don't think it's a bad team or anything, I just don't see it as this contender that others do, so I'm curious as to why.
Thinking about this...
L1 - Guentzel had a sophomore slump that season and is a far better player now. We flipped back and forth between Simon, Horny, and Rust for the RW there, and Rakell is a huge upgrade. Sid... he's probably lost a little, but it's really hard to tell most nights. He's in brute squad mode still, particularly with this looking like the best wing combo he might have ever had.
L2 - Malkin's line got jumbled up so much I'm not sure what to call the typical version of this line. Playoffs... Horny and Hags. Zucker struggles to stay fit, but right now, he's Hags plus. Rust needs to pull his finger out some, but he's at the very least equal to Horny, albeit a very different player. Geno... Geno ain't what he used to be. Still great, at times, but not the same unfair advantage.
L3 - L3 this year is a brutal mess and honestly if they could take the cap hit assigned and start again, that'd be great. But then... L3 that year was a brutal mess, albeit one that looked great on paper. Brassard and Kessel just didn't work. Too much ego.
L4 - Think I like Poehling Bloogs Archibald over ZAR-Sheahan-Kuhnhackl (although it looks like Sheahan spent some time on L3?). Significantly so. But not a big deal.
D1 - Lopsidedly in 17-18's favour, although Letang did spend most of that season a little walking wounded.
D2 - I will take Petry over Schultz by a huge margin, and much as I liked Maatta he ain't ahead of whoever you want to play at 2LD.
D3 - Oleksiak-Ruhwedel vs ?-Rutta - again, I'll take the present day
G - We don't know what Jarry is going to be come playoff time but given he's regularly reached regular seasons post-double Murray never sniffed, I'd take him
To me that's fairly even-ish. I like our blueline now a lot more as a whole, but the step back in terms of the top pairing sucks. I like our top six more in general, but lack the same belief in it to just hulk out and be the hero. Bottom six is a mess but I think it was worse then. And a ton rests on getting consistency out of Jarry.
I don't know how I feel about this team as a contender. Every contender needs luck, and our luck rests on a bunch of guys who we expect to be unlucky at their age.
But I think it's about as strong a roster as we've had since the double. If those were contenders and this isn't, then either the league's got stronger, or we were kidding ourselves about those teams. There's a bit of truth to both of those statements, but I don't think enough to explain it.
