Jarry is going to need to ball out and the bottom 6 will need to over-perform if this team wants to return to the playoffs. If EK can replicate last season, then they will likely be in the playoff conversation no matter what. But I've got doubts about the bottom 6 and the stamina of the top 6. I will say the defense looks pretty good overall. Adding Graves will prove to be a bigger gain than EK in my mind.

Well, I spent way too long on this as usual. I think we'll be capable of snagging a wild card spot, and at best compete for the 3rd Metro slot. This Pens team missed the playoffs by one point and got better just about everywhere.

- The Bottom 6 is fairly sound defensively and is quite a bit better than last years' IMO. If camp is anything to go off of, Sully intends to play Rakell on the 3rd line with O'Connor and Eller, which will make the Pens much more well rounded. The Pens' 3rd line of McGinn-Carter-Kapanen was one of the NHL's worst last year. There's nowhere to go but up. Accari and Nieto are also nice additions.

- Karlsson is the elephant in the room, but I love the Graves addition as well. Both are head and shoulders better than Jeff Petry and Brian Dumoulin were last year. Petry was ok but neither good enough or worth the cap hit. Dumo got better late in the season, but was a liability until it was too late.

- If Jarry can stay healthy, he won't be a cause for major concern. Via evolving-hockey, from the start of the '22-'23 campaign to February 1st, Jarry had a .921 SV% (7th in the NHL) and a 8.25 GSAx (tied with Darcy Kuemper for 17th). He's an above average starter when healthy; and like with the bottom 6, I can't imagine things being worse.

I can't see the Pens hanging with the top dogs in the East like Carolina or New Jersey. But there's a lot of ground to take beneath the elites. The East behind the top 4 or 5 teams could vary a lot. Between the amount of talent Boston lost, Florida having question marks on defense, the uncertainty on how much of a step forward Buffalo, Ottawa, and Detroit will take, and how little star power NYI has outside of the crease. I can see some pretty tight races in the East.

I disagree some of this. Last season, Jarry injuries as well as a terrible, slow, and bad defensively bottom six and a mediocre defense led the team to miss, and it was only by one point. By adding a plethora of fast, defensively responsible bottom six players that could earn a spot would be enough to get this team back to the playoffs. But on top of that, they also snagged Karlsson, which no matter what will be an upgrade over Petry, and added Graves which will also help the defense (you already mentioned the defense being good, which I agree with, but I had to emphasize these additions) And on top of that, Jarry supposedly got his injury over with, so he should be back to a really good level this year. IMO, this team should most definitely make it, probably at WC1 but possibly top 3 in the division if a lot goes right for them

IMO this team is either WC 1 or top 3 in the division

The bottom six won’t shake out like that.

Yeah, you're right about Jarry and I had forgotten about those injuries he had. I will say that Lars Eller is the exact opposite of fast and I was pretty confused that he got the deal he did. But I like Nieto going over there.