Quoting: Knuckl3s
Until Geno gets hurt
Well, you know, maybe an entire offseason and clean bill of health has him good to go for once. Last year he was never really healthy. Right now he should be. Motivated too. I always assume players will be healthy and stick to the positive aspect of it because you never know. He could be healthy the rest of his career. I sure wish him that clean bill of health. Would be nice to see him look like his old self confidence wise.
To go back on your other post, to me the D is GREATLY improved because Petry is much better than either Marino or Matheson. Neither of them impressed me, in fact, they both made mental errors in the playoffs in their own zones multiple times. It was frustrating. Our 2nd pair is locked in now. We have another guy who, actually, could be trusted to play some top pair minutes. Rutta played with Hedman and won 2 cups. He is versatile, and probably smart.
Smith will be better with us, he's very young, and he has a legit high ceiling. Who knows. I do still want us to get another top 4 guy. But right now, not paying those 2 guys over 9m for years to come is a huge win in my book.
On paper, we have great forward depth man. Our top 6 is stacked. Kap is on the third line, and he had chemistry with Carter last year, who is also a solid 3c. Our 4th line, right now, is a bit sus b/c I'm not sure about Poehling. But Archibald flies around. Blueger is a good bottom 6 guy. Zohorna has potential.
We had no problem scoring last year in the playoffs on the best goalie in the league... but they didn't have much trouble putting shots through our 3rd stringer either. If Jarry and DeSmith can play to their ability and stay focused and healthy come playoff time we are a legit Cup threat.
It all comes down to goaltending. Maybe we'll trade DeSmith and Zucker to Minny for Dumba and Flower.... HA