[djsFlames]

There is one thing that could change our fortunes sooner than later;
Johnny Hockey. I just think that he's truly an elite type (I see a Patty Kane type in his prime) if he can make it work against the big players on the big stage. I think he makes others around him better, too. I think he's helped to make Arnold a stronger offensive player.

And to a lesser degree, Poirier, Baertschi, Gillies. Although I think it'll take each of them a good amount of time yet to come into their primes as impact players.

I see Monahan starting to impact games more consistently and in more ways next season. He's figuring a little more out each day it looks like. What also excites me is how well him and Gaudreau looked together this past summer.

You can't say anything is for sure. We've got so much in the bank for this off season that we can throw at UFAs. Columbus has managed to sign some decent big fish in recent off seasons (Horton, Wisniewski), why can't we? I'd say we're much more attractive.

It all depends on how fast our 1st rounders move along, as well as how high guys like Knight, Granlund, Hanowski, Ferland, Sieloff, Wotherspoon can elevate themselves a players. For example if Sieloff (like Wotherspoon) can become a 2nd pairing guy instead of a 3rd pairing d-man, it'll help further us a little more.

So much depends on development within the organization and how well players progress individually (and how quickly).

But I think year 3 will look much different and a lot more hopeful than year 1. All it takes is for a few things to go really right over the next two seasons and we could be beginning to make noise that year.