RK: The boring answer is Phil Tomasino. I’m going to go with Tommy Novak. An eye-opening tryout with Nashville last season has a lot looking forward to what Novak can do. Will he be impactful? Where’s the right place in the lineup for him? Can he play with speed, or is his skillset all about slowing down the game?
KR: In terms of this season in particular, I think I want to say Ryan O’Reilly. I think Rachel’s right in looking at the young players and how this season is likely to affect their careers, but from another angle, O’Reilly is replacing two fan-favorite players–at least one of whom had very little notice of and wasn’t happy about his departure–and was specifically brought in as a Conn Smythe winner, who’d been a captain on his previous team, in order to help change the Preds’ culture.