Sorry are you suggesting Seider and Raymond today are equally as good NHLers as Tkachuk and Barkov?
You know he's not.
The idea is that Seider and Raymond are upper end level young players and the expectation is that they have the talent to grow into cornerstones. It's why people want them here for 8 year deals at 8M+.
So no, TODAY, they're not as good as Tkachuk and Barkov. But Tkachuk has 5 NHL seasons on both of them and Barkov 8.
Well barkov had 80 points this season and tkatchuk 88. Let's not talk about past seasons let's talk about when they won the cup. Larkin took about 5 years to hit his stride in the league but he is a ppg 2 way center that is highly underrated both in the league and by wings fans.
Kane is called Showtime and has 3 cups for a reason. Trying to twist that because of his age and surgery is fair but so far he's already proved everyone wrong including myself.
Our goalie needs improving but realistically if Raymond takes another big step this year we are going to be in awesome shape to make the playoffs and maybe win a round or 2 depending how lucky we get.
No we're not winning the cup with this roster but acting like we needs a 24 year old first overall pick to do that is silly.
Would you rather have Yakupov (1st OA 2012) or kucherov (58th OA 2011)?
Which player helps you win a cup?
I'm done going over this with you. You don't care at all what I'm saying. If you did, you'd realize that I'm not calling for them to tank or to say that they need some magical high first round pick to come save them.
Onto the next point though...
The Red Wings have some very serious faults that they need to prove are resolved before they can consider a playoff run. Talbot, Lyon, Campbell, or whoever need to give them better goaltending than last year. If they don't, I don't care how good Larkin, Kane, Tank, and Raymond are, they're not going anywhere.
It's also going to be a fools errand to just assume that we get a full 82 out of Kane, Larkin, and Tarasenko. Kane and Tank are older and slower. Larkin seems to be a magnet for getting banged up because he's our best player and teams like to take runs at him.
And their defense is relying very heavily on Chiarot playing on his off side, Edvinsson in his first full year, potentially Johansson in his first year, and then a smattering of Holl, Maatta, and Petry eating bottom minutes. The defense with no further moves is potentially a real weak point if Edvinsson doesn't take a huge step right away.
The Red Wings have a lot of work to do to be in "awesome shape" to make the playoffs. They certainly have the talent on the roster. They just need to avoid the injury bug and if someone goes down to not go completely in the tank for a month. There was no excuse for missing the playoffs this past season. Go 3-16 instead of 2-17 in February and March and you're in.