What's up with Phil Kessel?

hemlock wrote:
Agreed with all of this, although I'd like to see Wiercioch in the show in two years. From the time we drafted him up to now, he's made some tremendous strides, so if he continues at that pace, 2 years isn't unreasonable. I don't want to rush any of these 3. It's not like we are contending for the cup this year, or possibly next anyway.

No we're not. I had pegged 10/11 as the year that I thought we'd be back, but since Hartsburg set us back a year, some of our forward prospects haven't lit it up at the NHL level and our absolute overhaul of D that's needed (and thankfully is coming), I'll say we'd be lucky to get back into serious contention in 11/12, more like 12/13 now when Karlsson and Cowen have a year or 2 under their belts to help Wiercioch through.

Robin Lehner will be a wildcard as well. He'll be ready soon enough, but he has a devastating rebound control problem that will take the better part of 2 years to correct I would imagine. If he can fix that, then he's pretty much ready from what I've seen and read. Just an awesome talent.

Elliott will be ready for prime time, hopefully we keep Volcehnkov. Phillips is put out to pasture or re-signed for 1.5. Kuba, traded or gone and one of Lee, Campoli, Picard, Gryba, etc. will hopefully mature/emerge into a top flight D-man.

Then we roll the dice with Spezza and the new forwards we'll have to indoctrinate into the system. Foligno is one for sure, Silfverberg, Regin etc. This will be their team when we contend (unless something amazing happens )

Wow...I must have been saving that to write a thesis in a Phil Kessel thread.

When you say serious contention, you mean for The Cup, right?

shabbs wrote:When you say serious contention, you mean for The Cup, right?

Yes indeed.