CBJ were a 98 pt team that swept TBL and lost to BOS in 6 with:
Bobrovsky starting 61 games
Panarin leading all F's in TOI and the team in pts
Duchene* TDL acquisition who had 10pts in 10 playoff gp
Duclair/Dzingel (traded for each other at TDL)
After losing all of those pieces they became a 95pt (pace) team that beat TOR in the qualifying rd and lost to TBL in 5. Which included handing the net to Korpisalo (he played those playoffs) and Elvis (who had yet to play an NHL game). And basically losing Josh Anderson for that season, too.
Things fell apart in the 56 game season (70 pt pace). Anderson for Domi. Despite Dubois pouting like a baby they were 2-2-2 when they traded him. Laine and Domi were both sub .5 ppg players. Their Mikko Koivu signing only played 7 games.
Korpisalo was bad (33gp - .894 / 3.30). Seems like it took them a while to hand the reins to Elvis (28gp .916 / 2.77).
Then they lost Jones, Savard, and Foligno, but still bounced back to 81pts this year.
I suppose you could say they fell into the medicore middle zone, but they also had a ton of seismic changes beyond Panarin, managed to pick 5/12/25 last year and 6/12 this year and may already be back on the upswing.
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