Quote:
Originally Posted by GioforPM
If Gaudreau goes, the team has to adapt. No one player should be the key to team success. If the offence revolves around Gaudreau, then that's not necessarily a good thing. If Lindy takes a bigger role, if the money not spent on Gaudreau can be used to pay a decent secondary centre threat (via trade - there's no good UFA ones out there except Kadri and I don't like his ask) and maybe some defensive additions then maybe a different looking team playing Sutter hockey can succeed.
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But the problem isn’t just losing your best player. Your 2nd best player isn’t wrapped up long term. You have 2 more pricey RFAs so even with Gaudreau leaving to replace him means dumping picks with Lucic for someone to take his salary
If you have extra picks and some top prospects this team could easily move forward without Johnny. But it’s the combination of lack of cap space, lack of core players signed long term, lack of picks, lack of high end prospects combined with losing Johnny that will kill this team move forward