Quote:
Originally Posted by TMoore4075
Yeah you could end up like the Oilers and have a crap ton of offense and nothing to help keep the puck out.
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Exactly. EXACTLY.
The way I see it, you need to have young/semi-young cornerstones in every zone to build long-term success in the NHL (seems obvious but teams still ignore the concept). Not necessarily their "dream team line", but guys to build the rest of the team around. For the Avs, it could look something like this:
Forwards: Duchene, Landeskog, O'Reilly
Defense: Jones, Johnson
Goalie: Varlamov
And yes, I still contend that Varlamov is good enough to be a starting goalie in the NHL. I know not many of you watched the Avs on a regular basis (can't say I blame you), but he kept them in it night in and night out. I can think of maybe 2-3 "bad" games he had all season, and even those were riddled with defensive miscues.
Anyways, that's a pretty damn good foundation to build around. But if you don't draft Jones, that's leaving a big chunk out that you really need for success.
There's no doubting Nathan McKinnon's potential, and the team that drafts him at no. 2 may see immediate dividends that the Avs may not see with Jones after his rookie season. HOWEVER, I think in terms of overall team building and long-term success, Jones is the clear-cut answer for this Avs team.