Quote:
Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald
The (minor) problem there is none of our centers are elite like our wingers were.
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I do sometimes wonder if Gaudreau and Tkachuk were truly elite players individually, or if Gaudreau-Lindholm-Tkachuk just had that magic chemistry and were an elite line.
Nobody was calling Gaudreau or Tkachuk elite after their 19-20 and 20-21 seasons.
As a whole Huberdeau=Gaudreau, actually over a longer time horizon going back to 18-19 then Huberdeau>Gaudreau and has produced at an elite clip no matter who he was playing with. So we did replace one of the elite wingers with another elite winger.
So really it's if the downgrade from one elite winger in Tkachuk, is offset by more center depth (Kadri), more defensive depth (Weegar), and a full season with Toffoli (which I think sometimes gets overlooked that he was just a deadline acquistiion that only played 37 games).
The other thing I like is I think a lot of these guys will have a chip on their shoulder this season. Guys who are still on the Flames probably something to prove to Gaudreau/Tkachuk that they made a mistake, Huberdeau and Weegar really want to prove that Florida messed up, Kadri will want to show he wasn't just a product of the skill around him in Colorado, etc.
The other key will be finding fast chemistry with all the changes - I'm guessing we see another pre-season where Sutter has his NHL roster set from pretty much day 1. No messing around.