With Murray coming out and saying that he has faith in Cowen and won't trade him, I guess we're not looking at any kind of changes on the backend - which is really disappointing.
However...laughably, the forward core appears to be headed in the right direction with Michalek appearing to be coming around and Hemsky being a huge addition. Not to mention some of the young talent we have that have looked right at home up here - most notably Da Costa, Hoffman and Stone. Puempel looks like he might hit 25-28 goals in the AHL as well as a rookie, that's just fantastic - and people shouldn't forget Robinson or Schneider.
I guess, if we assume Hemsky and Michalek will at least be looked at as re-signings, we can have a good summer of working and come back next year with a refreshed outlook.
The main issue I would have is to make this a 4 line team - a true 4 line team - which means that Smith, Neil and Greening/Condra should rarely see 3rd line minutes.
MacArthur - Turris - Ryan
Michalek - Spezza - Hemsky
Hoffman - Zibanejad - Stone/Lazar
Greening - Smith - Neil
I assume Lazar will be in there somewhere
That's more along the lines of what we want to see here. 3rd line is no longer for checkers exclusively.
I don't even want to write out the D - it makes me depressed.
EDIT: It would be great to add Stewart and force him onto a line with Zibanejad with Lazar or whoever legitimately wins the other wing job.