Is this current slide painful? Yes! Concerning? Absolutely!!
But we have to remember what the expectations were before this season began. I think the consensus was that this would be a wild card bubble team, which is exactly where they are at the moment.
We also have to be careful not to start looking like the Leaf fans where we want every prospect rushed through the system and into the lineup, at the same time overvaluing players that are on other rosters. Remember, all players have strengths and weaknesses and there is usually a reason why players on other rosters are available and don't fit into their current team's plans. Either contract, chemistry or performance-based.
Yzerman has also drafted a significant number of D prospects, many of them with size, and we know that these players typically take longer to develop. We can definitely start to see things taking shape one way or another but can't truly evaluate these draft classes until a little further down the road.
