Quote:
Originally Posted by Machiavelli
Has any team in the past decade won without a strong 1-2 punch up the middle?
I've seen a few posts essentially pointing the finger at Monahan, a guy who played through significant injuries and who I could almost feel wince in pain when he received a hard pass.
This thread already reads a bit like a witch hunt but I'm wondering why Backlund isn't getting more grief. The organization put a lot of faith in him with a fairly generous contract, and I didn't see enough a high enough compete level this season. I saw a lot of lackadaisical play in the defensive zone and far too much coasting.
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This is a big worry for me as well, when it comes to this teams potential to compete for a Cup. Strength up the middle, while decent, certainly isn't elite in my mind. That's why Bennett flat-lining as a center really sucks. I had hoped he'd be at least as good as Mony by now and on his way to being a 70-80 point #1 center, and yet still not cost near as much as some of the other elite #1 centers around the league do. Maybe one day he'll suddenly click, I dunno. Couturier never cracked 40 points or 15 goals in his career until this his 25 year old season (draft +7) where he snagged a solid 31 goals and 75 points. Seems unlikely Bennett will ever do that though, especially since he's not even playing center anymore.
Maybe Treliving will perform a miracle this off season and land us Tavares, but that seems just as unlikely as anyone in our system blossoming into a legit #1 C over the next year or two, that can be a solid 1-2 punch with Mony.