Posted this in the "Around the NHL" initially as a reply to Edge, that was supposed to be short and sweet but became a huge roster-building novel, so I'm moving it here. This is my opinion on the current state of affairs in general =)
It was a reply to this post:
In some ways, we're almost the opposite of Colorado and Edmonton. I worry less about our ability to find depth, and a little more about having quite enough high-power ammo.
This is how I currently feel as well, though I do feel there's a definite need to address center depth which isn't easily achieved. The rest, the bottom 6, I think will be a fairly easy task. Of course there's a big difference between an adequate or even good bottom 6 and a great bottom 6, where I think a lot of playoff success does rely heavily on the latter. I still think we can achieve that without too much difficulty. It helps if we acquire a good center via trade or drafting, ideally (as opposed to UFA overpay) and manage to keep Strome at a fair price which may not be possible if keeps up current stats since arbitration will see him command a much higher price tag than we should be paying for one season of (again, assuming this continues) greatness that I have trouble believing would be a consistent thing. If we do manage to acquire a good center who's ready soon and *fingers crossed* Kravstov manages to fit into the NHL style of play and shows us some of the potential we know he has, then we're immediately a much deeper team running something like:
(This is because even though I see Chytil really starting to turn it on, I'm still not sold on him being the type of center we need behind Zib, especially if Zib goes down with injury. Chytil works as a #2C in a roster where we're all healthy since Panarin is such a good playmaker that he's basically a center in that regard.)
Panarin, Zibanejad, Kakko, Buchnevich, Chytil, New Center as top 6
Lemieux, Fast, Strome, Kravstov as guys who can do both top 6 and bottom 6 depending on situation/injuries
Howden, maybe Andersson, and/or a good PK'er with energy + vet addition for the bottom.
Those additions and young guys either continuing the good progress we've seen, or becoming what we think and hope they can... that looks like a contender to me. It does rely on quite a few things happening but I believe most will and we can be that team within 2 years.
Especially as our defense continues to get better, though I already like what I see from players individually (and so young to be doing it!) and we hopefully implement a new system or at the very least tweak the one we have. And we have a few more guys yet to come.
I think a Georgiev/Shesterkin tandem will be very good, particularly in front of a solid defensive corps.
We know Zibby, Panarin and Chytil can really shoot. So can Buch but it's not something to rely on. Early on we were all hoping Kakko and Kravstov would both come in and light that lamp frequently, which can still happen but also isn't something to rely on atm. It's nice to know that our D can score and most of them chip in that way but I know what you're saying with regards to firepower, or at least I think I do. We have Zibby and Bread as our only real top guys and Zibby is just now coming into his own from last season. It'd be great to add another top guy and I'd like that guy to be a center. And then we have Chytil, Kakko and maybe Kravstov who have the potential to be top guys. It's a weird situation to be in for us right now as a rebuilding team that's already quickly showing promise but just needs a few tweaks and some progress from guys who we thought would be more of an impact already. Prior to this off-season and debut I was ready for the long haul, but then we went out and made some splashes, got to draft 2nd OA, and see that maybe we're not as far off as we believed after unloading pretty much everyone two years in a row. If Kakko had come in like some other rookies have around the league lately (and I'm fine with the fact that he hasn't yet) and Kravstov had come in similarly like we expected and many analysts expected, along with Andersson and Chytil both showing strong progress? We'd already be pretty damn close to contending. So for me, at least, it was a rollercoaster of "strap in and let's do this rebuild!" to "Oh shit, we're potentially almost already there!" to "Well, we're more advanced than I thought but we need a bit more and some things are disappointing here..."
I'm still enjoying all of it though. Maybe not the Tampa blowout, but it's to be expected in some ways and I love some of the bounce back and resilience I've seen. Playoffs or not (and honestly I'd prefer not even if it's good experience for young guys which is a controversial viewpoint I won't get into here) I like watching this team, I like a lot off the guys and I'm checking out way more games than I have over the past 2 seasons. This team is easy to like I find, with and without bias. So there's my wall of text analysis and feeling =)
TL;DR: A center addition and some guys progressing as we think/thought they would, and I like where we're at.