Doesn't change anything

You’re not better than Seattle
You’re not even close to LA, Edmonton and Vegas

Going through this 1 by 1
Superstar forward : Caufield. Pettersson is 100x better
Superstar D : We actually don’t have that, so you beat us on this side
High end forward : Suzuki, Miller is better
High end D : Matheson, Guhle. Hughes and Hronek clear
Quality no 2 c : Dach, Miller is by far a better 2C
Reliable secondary scoring option : Monahan, Anderson, Newhook: Kuzmenko, Boeser, Garland, Mikheyev
Reliable everyday back end support piece : Harris, Savard, Barron: Soucy, Cole (Montreal has more supporting pieces so you can give them that)
Reliable Pk personnel : RHP, Evans, Dvorak, Ylonen, Pitlick: Joshua, Aman, Pettersson, Blueger
Cheap labor option : Roy, Beck: Hirose, Dries, Studnica
Quality depth option : Kovacevic, Wideman: Hoglander, Podkolzin
Backup option : Allen, Primeau: Canucks have Martin and Silovs but let's not pretend backup is in great hands

So the only real category MON beats VAN in is Supporting Dmen and backup goalie. They don't beat VAN in much of anythng

Chabot, Chychrun, and Sanderson are all very smart players… If they are only slightly above average, I’d hate to know how bad our defense is considered

Vancouvers defense is just as good as Ottawa's. Sanderson is the only one of those three who can play a shutdown role, Chabot and Chychrun can't play against toughest matchups

No argument to back up your claims, only recency bias

Zub is a pretty good shutdown d man which complements the offensive minded d well.
Chabot-Zub
Sanderson-Chychrun

Each pair has a guy that can lock it down, and Sanderson can provide even extra offense. Our defense is not as good as Ottawa

Hughes > Chabot
Hronek < Chychrun

Soucy and Cole bring about the same level of defensive ability as Sanderson and Zub despite having lower ceilings overall. Their backend as a whole still has to show they can perform consistently, which they didn't manage to do last season, where as a player like Hughes, I don't question his consistency. Sanderson is far from a finished product as well

Edmonton has the two best players in the world on their team

Vegas is the defending cup champions with mostly the same roster

LA has been a team on the rise for a good bit now

Seattle’s core blends together perfectly and they’re coming off an impressive playoff run

The only thing that the core in Vancouver has taught is that they’ll never do anything else of notability after 2020

Vancouver’s upside is last team in the playoffs

Seattle lack high end talent, doesn't matter how well their core blends together cause they don't have much of a core to begin with. Two players don't make a 21 man team, no matter how good they are. LA has been on the rise for a few seasons, but the new generation still hasn't taken over the reigns from the old guard, so they're not as safe of a bet as some might be lead to believe. There is nothing wrong with the core in Vancouver, it's been the lack of and wrong support pieces in place that has held them back, all of which are misgivings of the previous regime, not the current one.

The lack of high end talent clearly didn’t hurt Seattle last season

Also please find me the high end talent on all those Barry Trotz islanders teams from 2019-2021… oh wait you can’t because it didn’t exist

You clearly don’t need high end talent if the core you functions together maybe one superstar at most but I’m confident Beniers and/or Wright will be that guy in Seattle

Lack of high end talent doesn't translate to long-term success. Islanders quite literally flamed out after two seasons of overachieving under Trotz. Beniers is not yet a superstar, and may never be one. Same with Shane Wright

Hot damn, guys! Y'all have been at this since Thursday

I’d be willing to bet on one of them being able to take that jump at some point

And I don't think that's an unwise bet to make, but as for right now, Beniers is just a high end two-way 55-60 point centerman. He's not a point-per-game center. Heck, Trevor Zegras has yet to score at a point-per-game clip in a season, but everybody talks about him like he's already achieved that when he hasn't actually come close to doing so yet. 65pts in 81 games this past season, and nowhere near as good defensively as Beniers.