Sens without Depth
The loss of Havlat, Smolinski, Chara, and Hasek will mean a completely different team than the one favoured to win the cup last year will hit the ice.
Goaltending:
M. Gerber
R. Emery
A solid duo that should do well, but probably not as well as Hasek did last season.
Defence:
W. Redden
C. Phillips
A. Meszaros
T. Preissing
J. Corvo
A. Volchenkov
Good top 6, mix of offensive and defensive talent, good Plus Minus stats
Forwards:
P. Schaefer
P. Eaves
C. Schubert
D. Hamel
J. Spezza
M. Fisher
A. Vermette
C. Kelly
D. Heatley
D. Alfredsson
C. Neil
B. McGrattan
Solid, Yes, Offensivey talented, No.
Outside the Alfredson, Spezza, Heatley trio, there aren’t many offensive weapons. And outsde the top 6, the offence drops like a rock.
Overall the team has 12 solid forwards, 6 solid defencemen, and 2 solid Goalies, but not much else. This lack of depth will hurt the team, unless they do a good job staying healthy.
Its unlikely that the organization will make any more moves. They have 16 players under contract for 36.6million, if they resign the rest at the league minimum that puts them at about 40 million, enough room to possibly make a decent trade at the deadline.
This means that there may be a new leader in the Northeast, and if Buffalo survives arbitration, theres a good chance they’ll take it.