Well, Durzi was already there, and I kinda have him in the RH Dunn category. I saw him a lot living in LA. He’s good, but from everything I’ve read he’s projected to be 2nd pair. I was talking about Marino in my post, who’s coming off a down year. Sergachev, while great, is also coming off a couple major injuries over the last year or so.
Tbh, I forgot about Spurgeon’s injury, but I am still not afraid of that team. I do like Faber though.
I also think you’re underplaying how important it was for us to acquire players that make us much better at 5v5 and PK. We’re absolutely a better team now than we were last year. I think it’s more likely we make the playoffs than finish 7th.
I have to agree with this. subtracting Hayes, Vrana (for few parts), Blais, and Alexandrov and replacing them with Joseph, Faksa, Texier, and Kapanen (I know he was here) is infinitely better. Plus, I think there's clearly more offensive potenital in the new bottom 6 compared to last years. Vrana, although talented, is a liability, especially when he isn't producing. Hayes was an ok producer, but he was very streaky much like Schenn and his defense is passable. Blais isn't doing much when he's not physical. Alexandrov has lots of potential to be a 3rd line center, but he is too passive and weak to be a grinder. Joseph and Texier are 30 point players with good defense, Toropchenko and Kapanen are 20ish point players with good defense, Faksa is a 20 point player with great defense. Ignoring the possibility of Dean and Dvorsky making the team out of camp, you'll have Saad, Schenn, or Bolduc sliding down to that 3rd line and any one of them will provide nice offensive potential while being either a good energy guy or playing solid defense.
This team is not perfect at all and there are places in the top and bottom 6 where we can definitely improve, but they were pretty mediocre the entire year in almost every category except overall goals against. We were 24th in gf, 14th in ga, 24th in pp%, 18th in pk%, 27th in 5v5 gf, and 18th in 5v5 ga. We were excellent at winning games when leading after the first period, equally as good when leading after the 2nd, but we were awful at coming back in games. We gave up nearly identical goals in each of the periods (80, 82, and 82), but obviously we did not place high in goals for per period. I'll be curious to see how the offensive and defensive structure changes with new coaches and people shifting responsibilities, but I think we are a lot closer to a playoff team than not given how mediocre we were stats wise but finished just shy of a playoff birth.
