E.L. wrote:
I actually think this team is pretty good and shouldn't do anything rash, but New York gonna New York.
I could see their narrow contention window already being closed. Panarin is showing signs of significant decline already (why they wasted two fucking years of his prime with David Quinn I will never know) and after one career season where he broke records for power play goals, Kreider is looking once again like a *pretty good* player. Their top two centers are old AF now, and their defense beyond Fox and Miller (the latter of whom will be seeking a significant raise) isn't that great.
Add to this that their two highest-touted young players, taken first and second overall respectively, are nowhere near the franchise cornerstones they were reported to be.
That leaves Shesterkin, who's as good a goalie as there is in this league, and who may be relegated to the same fate as his predecessor, Henrik Lundqvist, buoying a team that just isn't quite good enough year after year after year.
In hindsight, if ya already got two left wingers signed long-term, I don't care if the consensus "best player available" is another winger, DON'T DRAFT HIM. Either trade down or just take the damned center. You can't build around elite wingers unless they're generational talents, and even in the case of Alexander Ovechkin, the Capitals still had to get two really fucking good centers in Kuznetsov and Backstrom to win it all.
And even at the time of the pick I thought the Lias Andersson selection was a terrible pick, and it turns out he was a complete and total bust. That's hurting them even more than Lafreniere and Kakko not panning out.