Quoting: jwg314
Humor me, would you agree the absolute best case scenario (though least likely) would be moving out all 3, acquiring a top pairing LD, Tucker steps up unexpectedly into the top-4, maybe as Parayko's long sought after partner fit, and Perunovich comfortably steps into PP1 with sheltered minutes? Like I implied, a lot of cards would have to fall into place, but imagine.
Best case sure. But I mean best case is a lot of prayers.
You don’t go into a season having all unproven players. I realistically just don’t see where you get top pairing guy from unless for some reason Chabot or Hanifin are available. Second rate would probably be taking a chance in Provorov, which personally I’m okay with.
I just think dumping a bunch of guys and not fully removing cap, or paying to do so right now is unwise.
There’s no reason that Krug doesn’t return more towards his career norms. Also, Leddys production this season wasn’t that bad given his primary usage was with Parayko who had some of the toughest usage in the league.
There’s a lot better of a chance our defense is a strength next season than assuming that Tucker and or Perunovich both step into roles next years and do so successfully.
In all honesty, some, not all of our defensive woes do have to do with Kyrou being an all or nothing player. Which is fine, and i think he’ll make smarter plays too going forward and slowly grow into a more reliable player (same with Thomas to a degree, he’s not as prone to the mistakes).
But yes for the hypothetical we are absolutely best off if two players exceed what past history shows we should expect from them.
But we’re also not in as soon and gloom of a situation as you would think. The issue is we have a major hole and ample cap space or options to fix it.
Now, if there’s another down season yeah we absolutely need to shave off everything with term and try to build something completely different. Getting a personnel change right now also should probably be looked for if we can’t find a top end guy we can fit in cap wise.