Go look at his
evolving hockey page for last year. I can't post a screenshot here, but his numbers are absolute crap compared to what they have been in the past.
Oh okay, so let's make no changes then and just pray that last year was a fluke? Because that's basically what you're suggesting.
I really have no clue what team some people in here watched last year. We can't trade Kessel because he puts up points, we can't trade Rust because his value is low....so who are they going to move? Is this going to be the day 1 lineup next year? Because it really sounds like some people here want this:
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
McCann-Malkin-Kessel
Simon-Bjugstad-Hornqvist
ZAR-Blueger-Some WBS winger
Dumoulin-Letang
Johnson-Schultz
Pettersson-Gudbranson
It comes off as shi-talking, but I often claim these folks didn't watch the Pens - or moreso watched the NBC games occasionally; however, I don't think I'm that far off.
It wasn't just last year either. Our run in 2018 was just as bad but Sid, Jake, and Hornqvist nearly pushed us past the Caps before they went on to win it all. That combo masked a TON of our difficiencies that
everyone kept chalking-up to injuries. We sucked, but nobody wanted to admit it. Geno, Kessel, Brassard, and a slew of other players were simply written-off as if they were playing broken.
Had we recognized then that we needed a shakeup, we wouldn't have had to watch our team flounder all damn year only to be embarassed in the first round. People in here claming stupid things based on basketball takes "ppg winger!" "Johnson is the only issue!" ...whatever the case, clearly don't understand what happened to this team.
We went from a team with:
A) Tons of surplus value in contracts
B) Depth, roster flexibility (Kessel playing on line 2/3, young guns playing lines 1-4, two 3C's rounding the bottom lines, etc), and 'specialists' (i.e. Hags)
and C) A mediocre defense that had purpose in the right areas
to a team with 3 surplus value contracts (Sid, Jake, Murray), tons of iffy contracts, zero roster flexibility (guys only working with one or two other guys), a horrible C traded for a wing we are trying to make into a C, no depth scoring, and a mediocre defense with questionable skills in the right/wrong areas - who are paid like a top-tier defense.