Quoting: EccE
I have Bjugstad there just because I wanted to get the Foligno-bros on the same line. It could also be Gusev, who thrives in a bigger role. Rossi could conquer a top6-spot if he recovers well. I also left 3,7 million in cap space for upgrades. This team is a contender. That's a fact. It has a strong center, extremely deep wings, great top4 D and above-average goaltending. It has also elite youth on the way.
It's not a fact, man. It's an opinion. The defense is average. You're replacing Suter and Soucy, who were above average as the 4-5D, with Goligoski and Bogosian, who are average to below average in those spots. That's going to significantly impact your defense and goaltending as a whole, and it's also going to potentially impact your offense. Do you remember the years when our offense couldn't even get anything going because we were too preoccupied playing defense the whole game and not allowing goals?
Your offense is average to above average for year one. The second line is underwhelming. If Ek is going to be your top six center, you need two good offensive wingers, and you only have one. And Gusev isn't going to make a difference there either because he already proved he's not good.
But that doesn't account for years 2-4 when you need to start dumping guys like Zuccarello and Dumba just to ice a full team. You're going to get continually worse every year because you need to fit under the cap. This team certainly isn't a contender without Dumba and Zuccarello.
Finally, the strength of our schedule is going to get a lot better, we're not going to be cruising to an automatic playoff spot because almost 60% of our games are against bottom 10 teams anymore. And with a weaker team and a stronger schedule, this is a bubble team.