101st_fan
I taught Yoda
Novak is 27. Not exactly a young guy at this point. Fagemo and Foudy were retreads and Foudy unsurprisingly joins the tweener group that we have plenty of. I think Parssinen played very poorly at the NHL level this year- no argument there. Tomasino horse has been beaten to death.
Let's say Zucker leaves. I am not of the opinion that this team is short on tweener types- I think that's hardly arguable. I don't see the harm in opening the season with 2 more spots that are essentially designated for current Milwaukee players (it won't be presented this way of course but you get the idea). I certainly don't think the team will greatly miss what Sherwood, Jankowski, McCarron, etc bring which is somewhere between replacement level and league average.
No particular order-
Tomasino
L'Heureux
Afanasyev
Kemell
Svechkov
Parssinen
6 guys that can compete for a couple of roster spots and push out some of the known-quantity mediocrity down the roster. Mix and match depending on the role we are looking to fill. Truthfully, if that somehow torpedoes the Preds' playoff chances, there's not a great loss here. You can frame that as not caring if they make it or not, but while I want them to make the playoffs every year, the idea of sneaking in again as one of the oldest teams in the league is just not that compelling.
Performance, not age, matters. I don't care if it's a kid or a vet that performs, as long as they perform. Nyquist was expected to fill a 2nd or 3rd line role .. then stepped up and executed. Novak, Tomasino, and Pärssinen were expected to put up points yet only one of the three did ... for part of the season. There are roster spots to take. It's up to players to do it. For all of the handwringing over Smith, Sherwood, Jankowski, and McCarron .. nobody really made a case to push them out of the lineup.
Come camp, what do the current top performers in Milwaukee do to make a case for themselves? That is what matters. We've buried Jankowski in the AHL to start the last two seasons. Smith and McCarron are candidates for 13th/14th forward. It's a matter of execution.