Originally Posted by SuperMatt18
They had some decent young players if Sutter would have just been a but less stubborn and a bit more open to youth. And the team didn't realize they wouldn't have Kylington all season when you made that decision which was also a big loss.
Markstrom, Vladar : Should have been a top 10 goaltending tandem.
Andersson, Weegar, Tanev, Kylington, Hanifin, Zadorov, Stone: Should have been a top 5 defensive core but they missed Kylington's skating all season.
Huberdeau, Kadri, Lindholm, Toffoli, Backlund, Coleman, Dube, Mangiapane: Should have been a middle of the pack top 9 and better if Huberdeau was 90+ points as expected.
I'll always wonder what that team looks like if you replace:
Lewis, Lucic, Ritchie, Ritchie with Rooney, Ruzicka, Pelletier, Zary, Duehr, Phillips going right back to that offseason.
The makings of a good team were there...Sutter just needed to adjust his approach a little bit to be a bit more open to youth and creativity...and instead with those other guys leaving he leaned the other way and became even more stubborn.
|