Quoting: HatterTParty
How much of not getting scored on 5+ times a game has been down to goaltending though? How many times have we been outshot this season? I agree we need top six wingers, but we also need more puck moving dmen to get it to the wingers and centers.
And how much of keeping the puck out of the net or keeping shots against at a minimum is attributed to playing a strong possession game in the neutral and offensive zone? How many times are we pinned in our own zone for 90 seconds at a time? We need bigger wingers, wingers that win board battles. While I agree defense is a problem, I also see us losing way too many board battles offensively, getting out muscled up front.
I will say this; with a healthy Keith, DeHaan, Boqvist, Mitchell, Murphy, and a 6th and 7th man inclusive of Seabs, Seeler, Gilbert, Carlsson, Koekko....we should have a capable defense and one that is puck moving. Problem is, when you have guys like Debrincat, Strome, Kampf, Kane, turning pucks over and not winning board battles and not playing defense then it won't matter. Toews has been brilliant, but after him offensively, who do we have left playing that kind of game? Saad, Carpenter...Dach is emerging and getting good defensively. I give Kane a pass because of his upside in other areas, but Strome and Cat have been hugely problematic this season without the upside like Kane. If we can trade Strome and get a mid 1st rounder and a pretty good forward prospect (Vesalainen who's not a stud prospect but he's big), then it is worth it. We go into the draft and take two bigger forwards like Holtz and Lundell, that is 3 forward prospect wingers for the future that all have size and play the boards. Outside of Saad, we don't have wingers like this and need them.