I certainly think it's a possibility that they can bottom out. I'm defining bottoming out as the bottom 6 or so teams. As it stands right now they don't have a truly bottom lineup, but one thing to consider was how many games Markstrom stole for the team last year. This year we are almost certainly not getting that level of goaltending. So there are a lot of hopes that guys will take that next step, and certainly they may but THAT substantially that they'll make a material difference? Not sure about that. Markstrom was the one gamebreaker they had, and with that gone, I think their realistic upside is around 13th worst, and their realistic downside is 4th worst. I certainly HOPE Conroy doesn't deal picks for players unless they're blue chippers. This team NEEDS to bottom out to do well down the road. Certainly there's no certainty about hitting a home run, but all contending teams need some legit drafting high picks to have a chance at hitting the home runs needed. Denying that and hoping for hitting a home run with a mid pick is a hail mary. Gotta do it the tried and true way and that's by bottoming out.
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