1. McDavid
2. Kucherov
3. Mackinnon
4. Kane
5. Barkov
6. Point
7. Matthews
8. Panarin
9. Stamkos
10. Marchand

Definitely possible. But, he just doesn't have the offensive talent around him that EK, Burns, or Hedman has. He'll have to do more w/ less. He also needs guys like Mittlestadt, Vesey, and MoJo to contribute more offensively. I think it's a given at this point that Dahlin is #1 and Risto is #2 (or #3).

My Projections....
1. McDavid - 133 ( He needs 128 to get to 400 in his career by 23.
2. MacKinnon - 124
3. Kucherov - 114
4. Kane - 113
4. Draisitl - 113
6. Matthews - 109
7. Eichel - 105
8. Barkov - 104
9. Gaudreau - 100
9. Point - 100

Risto is 6-8

We have Miller, Pilot, Dahlin, Henri, and Montour above Ristolainen. I just don't see them being worse than Risto.

Here is a crazy fact I just found out! When Dahlin averaged between 23-24 minutes he was over a ppg at the time. 12 pts in 11 games at that level.

I agree, Dahlin is so so good, he’s the next great defensemen imo.

I'd say Montour is a better player than Risto. Risto is #3 on Buffalo right now IMO, but he's probably going to get traded before the season anyway.

Miller and Pilot are both better than Risto also...

Maybe

I agree. I think Risto has been shopped around since the deadline last year, and maybe even before that. I think he's still quite valuable given his offensive upside and reasonable cap hit, but the asking price probably needs to come down a little. He's totally expendable and BUF might be better suited spending their capital on depth scoring.

I don't think they're better than Risto in an absolute sense. They might be more valuable to BUF given their cap hits, but Risto is a superior offensive threat and could thrive in a more structured setting.

I think Risto is a bit overpaid ... also, it doesn't matter if he's playing up to that level or not, it still counts against the cap and they might have to take back a bad contract to get full value for Risto.

I haven't seen a lot of Pilut to comment on him particularly, but I can assure you Risto is better than Miller. By far. Miller is full of defensive lapses and bad giveaways, embellishes allllll the time, blows coverages, etc

Miller vs. Risto is debatable. I haven't seen a ton of Pilut but he's been pretty good with what i've seen of him ... i'd say Risto is probably better though. Risto also isn't the best defensive d-man ... he's mainly a point-getter.

when mcavoy was healthy last year krug was pp1 and mcavoy was pp2 with grz. so im not sure what im missing here. Krug has been pp1 since he came into the league.

Exactly what I was thinking for Zaitsev