I must admit I was surprised to see a couple of Pens fans really attempt to hype up their team as being more than the sum of their parts, I always thought pens fans were fairly level headed and well informed relative to some other fanbases

I wouldn't worry about what a few individuals say...it's all a good discussion. "Gardocki" seems to be a reasonable fellow throughout the years.
Gee, I have most of "shake the head" moments with some my fellow Leaf fans posts.

I'm not a big fan of Hextall's moves so far. It feels like for every good move theres two bad moves. I think the Carter contract and his summer going into last season were very poor. This past summer I thought was a mixed bag. Loved the Marino trade, but did not love much else. I think the Kapanen contract was way way too much. Letang contract I like, Malkin contract jury is still out (happy to have him back, but curious to see how he does now with a full training camp after his surgery), and the Petrey Matheson trade I don't love in hindsight (even though I think Petrey could be really good). I also think he botched our bottom 6 for this year.

The bottom six isn't horrible by any means, but it certainly looks rather unspectacular, at least on paper. Jason Zucker also sticks out like a sore thumb in the top six, I'd say that even if he was being paid fairly. I think the Petry/Matheson trade should work out to be a win-win, but we'll see. I think the Marino/Smith trade was solid, even as a non-Penguins fan I'm optimistic that Smith can find another gear in some new scenery. If Kapanen can chip in 35-40 points, I wouldn't sweat that contract. Letang's game should be up to his normal standards for at least the first half, as for Geno, I think he's still got at least another year or two of ppg play left in him, the question will come down to his health like you said.