If I have my way, we're re-signing John Tavares and either trading our picks for Colton Porayko or using them to trade up into the top 5 to take Quinn Hughes.
Love Quinn Hughes!
Was already pining for him last summer as our pick this summer. Even mentioned it right after the U18 in 2017.
Still, I'd take a Smith and Veleno over JUST him any day of the week and twice on Sunday. The talent level among this top 15-20 is simply too high for anyone not named Dahlin or Svechnikov to be held in such high esteem that he'd outweigh any two picks.
If we don't sign Tavares, Barzal sinks to 55 points.
You'll not find many in agreement here.
Aside from Barzal's style of play which automatically and consistently creates offensive chances, he played on another line than Tavares and the PP was actually poorly planned by having JT and Barzal there without JT not being solidly entrenched on the right face-off dot (where they had Bailey most of the time).
If you're worried about the attention Barzal would get without JT, that'll be the onus of management to bring in another capable offensive center should JT walk, likely a Stastny or Bozak type for the time being. A drop in points may well be possible, but not just because JT isn't there.
One way or another, this team MUST address the center position, because even with Tavares, Barzal, Nelson, and Cizikas, this wasn't close to being a playoff team and in light of Cizikas' automatic 15 games per on the IR and the fact that we're likely wasting Nelson up the middle, where he's not all that capable anyways and too rarely releases his wrist shot, this team needs to do a better job of maximizing this oh so crucial position.
One of the reasons it should be using a couple of high picks on the better centers in the first two rounds of this draft.
