Joined: May 2021
Posts: 202
Likes: 71
This team would obviously be very strong, there's no doubt about it. There is two areas I would be scared of though.
1) Bottom 6 scoring. I understand Danault, Arvidsson, and Moore all had 45-50 points this year, but all 3 of them were ranked 4/5/6 respectively in ice time amongst forwards for the kings. You can't take guys getting top 6 minutes, and drop them to 3rd line minutes, and expect the same kind of production. Although I'm not naiive to the fact that these 3 guys can all produce. I still think this team would be fine depth scoring wise I'm just nit picking a little bit. There's no doubt about it this team is deep as F.
2) Goaltending. Call it dumb. Call it old-school mentality. I don't care. I get VERY nervous when I have two young goalies. I think you can absolutely succeed with a young goalie leading the charge. Otteinger was HISTORIC against the Flames this post season, and Swayman had a great year too. I'm just saying. History tends to favour the veteran goalies come playoff time. I mean look at the Pens Rangers series this year. You've got Igor. The vezina winner, historic season, potential to be the best goalie in the league for a decade. And even HE looked shaky as **** against the Pens in the playoffs. Look at MAF's playoff stats from 03-14. With the exception of the 09 cup season, MAF was literally ran out of the crease multiple times in the playoffs. Then as he got older he became more and more consistent. That's my biggest fear when it comes to young goalies. Consistency. To me it seems with young goalies. When they're on. They're on. But if they aren't on. Boy can it be ugly. An absolute implosion. Tristian Jarry in the 2021 playoffs against the NYI is another great example of it.
Once again. I think this team is super good, its a fun idea, and they'd likely go VERY far. These two points I brought up are nitpicking. I would bet on this team to make the finals. So long as their elite (albeit young) goaltending can hold up.