I agree with the latter part of your post about reloading, but I don't know if I can predict next year. Obviously we're a playoff team with our top lines, and we've kept the D mostly in tact, assuming we keep Hammer. But considering how close the margin of error was in the Vancouver and SJ series....we won out with our depth. We could have lost both of those series last year...now all that depth is gone. I don't think I can predict how well we'll go until midway through the year. The margin of error is always narrow in hockey, though. I don't think it's as simple as "it was close and we lost a player so now we'll lose." We were a good team that caught some breaks and a hot streak, and we'll need to do that again. You're being too modest. Last year's Hawks were fantastic, not some lucky break cinderella. Never said they were a cinderella. According to that one blog behind the net or whatever its called the Hawks were by far the best team in the league last year and actually underperformed in the playoffs. The Hawks could easily be as good as Vancouver and SJ or whatever next season, or they could be clearly worse, or they might still be slightly better. When your talking about losing depth, and not necessarily top end talent, its hard to tell until you see it's effects.