Quote:
Originally Posted by bubbsy
I really think this is more an indictment on the weak prospects we have than the coaching/management staff
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It isn't even a matter of weak prospects. It's just that the team's best prospects are either going back to junior or just turning pro, and simply aren't close to NHL-ready yet. (We saw this in camp with Pelletier, who has the skill and the hockey sense for the NHL, but just doesn't have the physical strength yet.) The older group was picked pretty clean by the graduation of players like Andersson, Valimaki, Dube, and Mangiapane.
Then you have Zary (broken leg) and Coronato (NCAA), who could be the two best prospects in the system – certainly the two best forwards – and weren't in camp at all. Any team's prospect pool will look worse if you subtract the top two forwards.