I'd argue UW has 2 guys that are superior talents: Zengerle and Kerdiles.
Mersch is good but he's like a Jack Skille to me, enigmatic and he doesn't control play. He'd be a 3rd liner on a National Championship Team.
Derek Lee to me isn't even in the equation. he's the Nick Checco (rat player) or Niki Siren...came in with hype, really hasn't done much.
I'm sure I'll catch heat for this and that's fine, but this team just has a *severe* lack of talent, AND the hyper-intensive emphasis on forwards being aware of their defensive play leads to tentative offense and 0 creativity as we've seen all season long.
Most of us saw Dany Heatley and Steven Reinprecht play at UW. Some of us saw , Zent, Fairchild, Schier, Moore, some of us saw Tony Granato, Scott Mellanby, Steve Tuttle, Paul Ranheim et al play prior to that.
there isn't a player on this team that can match any 1 of the guys above. not 1 (caveat - unless Kerdiles stays 3 years and explodes offensively). If Eaves intends to stay he needs to land more Besse's, Earl's and Pavelski's and he needs to do it in bunches asap (I think) in order to retain his job.