You can pose things without such an obvious bias towards attacking Adams. You are also basically stating Adams view of the team is their previous years performance, which is...typical?
I assume the idea would then be to move on from Joki once teams see what they have (or don't have) at camp or injuries strike.
None of Joki, Johnson, Bryson, or Clifton play the left? I am not being cheeky or anything. I am literally terrible at remembering which D men play on which side. I would just assume with the log jam at the third pair, that we wouldn't be looking to add anymore bottom pairing D.
Johnson and Bryson are both left-handed defensemen who play the left side (though both have played the right). Bryson isn't/shouldn't be an everyday NHLer, but he's fine as a both-sides #7 or #8. Joki and Clifton are both right-handed defensemen who are straight-up awful when asked to play the left side.
I would think Chicago would be higher. If they make a move for Laine, he could feast besides Bedard. They may not be bad for very long.
Talk about the mother of all sucker bets.
Because no one on the outside can believe a team who has missed the playoffs for 13 years is going to leave a hole in the top six while sitting on the cap savings from cutting Skinner.
"bUt ThE bILlS"We have a budget, cutting Skinner was more about dollars than cap.
I do think a better hockey team would bring in way more money but maybe Pegs doesn't want to risk it.
I would prefer a better 3C over adding to the top 6. Maybe we can get a discount on Henrique?
2022-23:
The bottom line is last season was Adams first true opportunity to improve a team expected to compete and he didn't. This year he did.
Adding 4th liners only makes this team marginally better. Adams added zero players that can make a difference offensively.
We needed to add speed and grit and we did.They traded a prospect for a player who is still only 24 arguably fastest player in the league but doesn't go to the tough areas.His transition game is excellent maybe Ruff gets him some PP time and he excells. My point is this is all Ruff telling Adams to make these moves.Skinner buyout is Ruff telling Adams it won't work here with him..I am a huge Ruff guy and he knows what this team needs.Top 6 are Thompson Tuch Peterka Quinn Cozens and Benson.Add Zucker and Greenway on 3rd line and forward group looks deep at least to me.Defense looks talented and deep to me along with goaltending. The key in my opinion is specialty teams health and a structure that demands two way play.I think they addressed their biggest needs which was grit goaltending and coaching.Time will tell j guess
Both Tuch and Quinn can't make it through a full season Zucker is cooked. It's a huge hole and if this team faces injuries then throw another season in the garbage
