I definitely see effort in that thread. I can't doubt that. My argument, starting by quoting your analysis on the Flyers: "PHI - 96P: I still think that the young pieces this team has will propel them to success but they downgraded their Dcore and signed some BAD deals."
- Yes, they did sign some pretty bad deals. Haye's contract should be a million less and Elliot is overpaid as well.
---Even though they are bad deals, the cap room they had allowed these to be forgivable at least for now. The flyers lacked a second line center last year, and now they have one, as well as Frost who probably can push Patrick to the wing. It's a bad deal but it still improves the team (Training camp reports show that there has been good chemistry from Hayes with both JVR and Voracek, though admittedly training camp results are near-meaningless.
-I don't think the D core is worse, in fact I'd say it's one of the most improved over last year.
--- Myers is a top-4 capable defenseman that I think will surprise people this year. Niskanen might be beyond his prime years and on a bad looking contract, but he is an upgrade defensively to Gudas. This team's d-core struggled defensively despite having decent offensive output. Niskanen and Braun as mostly defensive defensemen pair perfectly with the offensively inclined Provorov and Ghost. I would take this defense over the previous year's any day of the week.
-People also greatly undervalue Frost and Farabee.
---Frost is a real deal and Farabee is making some impressive motions to the league. I can see Frost getting between 30 and 40 points depending on his usage and farabee between 20-35. Considering the forward depth of this team they can be moved around anywhere for most production.
I can agree that washington can be rated ahead of this team because the top nine and goaltending is still better. Carolina might also make a decent argument. However I still can't see NJ and PIT being better.