[Kovaz]

I think a correlated, but more important, issue is how few good shooters we have. We don't really have that type of weapon that can pick a corner from anywhere. As great as the Lindholm-Hanifin trade was, the biggest negative to me was losing arguably the best two shots on the team in Ferland and Hamilton. Neal being such a disaster also hurts here.

In the same way that having one or two super fast players can make a whole team seem fast and back off defences, I think having one or two elite shots can make the whole team seem more dangerous, and pull defenders out of the slot. But if there's nobody that's a threat from the perimeter, I think it makes us much easier to defend.

If anything, we have too many players in the "solid, high iq, decently skilled two-way player" mold, and not enough that bring something unique to the table. Incidentally those players often are left-hand shots, but that's not the core of the issue.