Quote:
Originally Posted by djsFlames
Petterssen is turning out to only be a pretty good, but not high end core player. Many people have echoed this sentiment.
Boeser has leveled off. Not a highly competitive player. I could see a Monahan-like trajectory for him.
Horvat is decent but again I don't sense further growth for him at this point.
Garland didn't quite meet the hype coming out of the desert last season. Didn't do much for their forward group.
Hoglander is skilled but undersized.
I don't know about the European guy they dropped into their roster but its usually worse than a coin flip that those guys stick here.
Hughes should just be a forward, he doesn't play defense. Was exposed as a train wreck since Tanev left him.
The defence group as a whole is mediocre.
Demko is a superb goalie.
Boudreau is a pretty good regular season coach.
In the PAC the Canucks are probably in the bubble, pushing for WC or 3rd if Demko can bail out their poor defense nightly. If he goes down they're ####ed, of course.
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It’s beside the point if they’re “contenders” or not. They’re good enough right to be a bubble playoff team, and most of their top players are in their early 20s.
These franchises are sustained by connections they make with children when they’re 4 years old. They Play ball hockey in their driveways and they pretend to be JT Miller, Johnny Gaudreau, Jonathan Huberdeau etc - and when they win a round or two, that excitement stays for life.
You don’t win fans for life by punting on a core with one player over the age of 25.
You augment that core.