Pens

Bottom 6 is still weak. Carter on LTIR would be a nice boost.

When you look at this team the top 4 Dman are what jumps out from last season to now. I don’t see a better top 6, just a slightly different one. The bottom six improved with Acciari. Granlund should have been bought out before the draft. That’s a hill I will die on. Casey is a better backup than Ned.

The top 6 is a wash. I think it’s the same as last year production wise. The bottom 6 is marginally better but mainly due to Acciari. The only area where we clearly improved is in the top 4 Dman. The bottom pairing is a problem but I doubt we will play POJ and Smith together. I also think one of them will be playing elsewhere by tge TDL.

One of the two needs to become an established NHLer even if it is only as a sheltered bottom pairing dman. I expect Ruhwedel will get a lot more playing time as 3RD which is fine as he's no worse than Rutta for less than half the price.

I think he is worse than Rutta but the price part is fair. I’m betting Smith is the odd man out come February.