Yes they are dire compared to our previous teams, very dire, shouldn't be comparing our team against competitors, it should be against our team in previous seasons.
Very difficult and unfair to compare this team to previous Devils teams IMO. Things change over time.
For a start we now have a wage cap. So we’re spending less than we did in the last three seasons pre-COVID.
The UK is also in a worse position economically. The £ is worth less and so an AHL quality player will cost more in £s now than it would have pre-COVID and pre-Brexit.
On paper at the start of the season I didn’t see much between the supposed Big 4. And I certainly didn’t look at Guildfor’s roster and think “Wow they are going to be the team to stop”.
We had a lot of returning players (who usually cost more) and the new players were all pretty experienced. Ultimately a couple of players who are probably some of the bigger earners aren’t yet producing what they did last year or what we were expecting from the new players.
Having said that, there were some better performances last night from a couple of players who I’d have down as underperforming. And as I always do in these kind of discussions have to bring up Layne Ulmer. He was massively criticised on here during his first couple of months and lots of calls for him to be replaced. But he stayed, his form turned after Xmas and he was one of our best players over the following seasons.