Ok take this with a grain of salt. But I was thinking, Slats loves to be bold. What kind of bold moves can we make? Get Joe Thornton? Get both Vermette and like a get D to be UFA? Nah, don't make any sense. The cap will just kill us next year, and we can't give up our kids.
But from my POV, there is actually a bit of room for Slats to be "bold" in one area, that is to get a player now -- that we can trade again at the draft.
Take Keith Yandle for example. There are so many teams looking for a top D, we could always get a good return for him at any time. Right? Would we get a lesser price at the draft than what we would have to pay for Yandle today? You know, not necessarily. Not necessarily at all. Could actually be a pretty good investment.
So what it really comes down to is if we are willing to give up the known assets it would take to get him, in favor of a SC run with gamble and the price we would get for him in late June, that to a large extent would be unknown parts? Yandle is just an example, there are other players like this (IE guys on a contract that we could trade youth for now, then move elsewhere for "new youth" at the draft).
But let's take Yandle, a scenario that could be somewhat interesting would be if we could get him for like Duclair and McIlrath now, use him during he POs, and then swing him to say Detroit for Antony Mantha at the draft. Half ridiculous I know.
But my point is this, if Slats pulling of a "bold" move it probably is for a player that he intends to move again at the draft. We just don't have room to take someone on. There are a few players out there that we could get now and move at the draft without any problems.