You said ‘McDavid and Draisaitl don’t need a whole lot’. That’s the idea I took exception to.
As if to make my point for me you go on to point out that injuries limited the ability of both guys to play to max. Not for the first time either I might add. I guess in fantasyland injuries like that don’t happen and the club doesn’t need players to pick up the slack. We probably won’t need to worry about that this season or next eh?
Then you go on to list three or four other guys like Bouchard, Hyman and Ekholm. Two of those guys were among the highest scoring players at their positions. Is that how you define ‘not a whole lot’? I also notice that while dismissing the ‘role players’ you neglected to mention that those guys were largely responsible for killing an unheard of 23 penalties in a row. Again, is that what ‘not a whole lot’ looks like in your world?
Next you talk about wasted cap space to the tune of $10 million plus. Exactly what we’ve all been bitching about for the last five seasons and exactly what this club cannot afford because McDavid and Draisaitl aren’t even close to enough to get the job done. They need support players for all the reasons mentioned above. Calling that ‘a bunch of gravy’ suggests that you haven’t been paying attention at all.
I mean the point remains ... they basically damn near won a Cup with a wishy washy bottom 6 (lets be honest), below average goaltending, basically really only one reliable 5-on-5 top 6 winger (Hyman), Cody Ceci in the top 4, and some random rookie (Broberg) who wasn't good enough to even make the Oilers out of camp with like 25 real NHL games experience, and Desharnais is what ... some dude who was a career AHL player at age 26.
Really all they've needed to become a legit Cup contender was Hyman + Ekholm added to what they already had (development of Bouchard) and then the real key ingredient last year was Knoblough/Coffey (actual structured coaching with adjustment making). The Knoblaugh add took us from a 2nd/3rd round type of team to a legit Cup contender even with the Cody Cecis of the world being asked to play big time minutes.
The team is more like a kid who grows in huge singular growth spurts rather than something that's gradually building because we're making all these shrewd little moves and little steals of draft picks.
It's basically really just the natural evolution of McDavid + Draisaitl + 3 or 4 other ingredients added to the max that has elevated us.
Now sure you can argue we *should* be this that and the other, but the fact is we haven't been and we damn near won a Cup anyway, we've won more playoff rounds I believe than any team in the last 3 years. All that shows to me is you give McDavid/Drai even a little help and all of the sudden opponents are in deep, deep trouble.
Hyman levelled us up, then Ekholm levelled us up another notch, then Knoblaugh/Coffey basically took us to another level. That's basically all the net improvement to the team, three large bursts in total, other than McDavid/Draisaitl/Bouchard having natural development in their games.
If we can get anything from Arvidsson, or any freaking growth from Stuart Skinner (time to put on your big boy pants, you're not an NHL toddler anymore) that will move the needle just on its own.