[wishfulthinking] Alright, here's my enthusiastic and ideal Stars off-season:
Trade:
- 13th overall pick 2018 + 1st round pick 2019 + Devin Shore + Denis Guyrianov to Buffalo for Ryan O'Reilly.
- Brett Ritchie for a 3rd round pick to whoever.
- Spezza + 4th round pick to Arizona for future considerations.
- Hanzal + Nicklas Hansson to Vancouver for future considerations.
Spezza only has one year left. A bottom feeder with lots of cap space could definitely take a gamble on him and his experience.
Hanzal might be a bit tougher to deal, but he's actually fairly useful when healthy, which is just rarely. If we could manage to trade him - awesome.
Sign:
- Evander Kane (5 years x 6.5M) - doubt he signs for less, otherwise I like Hornqvist as well, who should come cheaper.
- Calvin de Haan (5 years x 4.5M) - big fan, but he'll likely sign for more, then again, this is all wishful thinking.
- Patrick Maroon (2 years x 3.5M)
- The cheapest of Hutton, Bernier or Hammond (3 years x 3M)
Add from within:
Honka, Heiskanen, Hintz.
Let go:
Lehtonen, Roussel, Hamhuis, Pateryn.
Try to re-sign:
Wouldn't mind Roussel coming back if he somehow asks less than 2.5M, which I doubt.
Roster
Jamie Benn (9.5) - Tyler Seguin (5.75) - Alexander Radulov (6.25)
Evander Kane (6.5) - Ryan O'Reilly (7.5) - Mattias Janmark (0.700)
Patrick Maroon (3.5) - Radek Faksa (2.2) - Roope Hintz (0.800)
Gemel Smith (0.650) - Jason Dickenson (0.894) - Tyler Pitlick (1.0)
Extra: Elie (0.728), McKenzie (0.700)
John Klingberg (4.25) - Esa Lindell (2.2)
Calvin de Haan (4.5) - Miro Heiskanen (0.925)
Stephen Johns (0.725) - Marc Methot (4.9)
Extra: Honka (0.863)
Ben Bishop (4.61)
Hutton/Bernier/Hammond (3.0)
Buy out costs:
Niemi (1.5M)
23 team roster cap hit: 74.37
2018-2019 Upper limit: 75.00
The following year we safe 6.4M with the Niemi buyout coming to an end and with Methot leaving. Give roughly 4 of those to Seguin and use magic to keep core intact. I think it requires an aggressive off-season once more if we are serious about contending and actually get something out of the Seguin/Benn/Klingberg trio. We can't be replacing players from within or add half assed players. Another year like this could spell the end of Benn, not to mention Seguin not re-signing.
[/wishfulthinking]
I like the idea of acquiring O'Reilly if they can pull that off but you forgot about Val Nichushkin. I think something like this may be more plausible by filling more of the needs from within and at a much cheaper cost.
Summary
Hintz would be a huge upgrade over Roussel offensively and give the third line more scoring punch. The lines defensive responsibility would continue.
Nichushkin would add some size, speed and defensive responsibility to first line and he wouldn't look entirely out of place offensively.
O'Reilly centering the second line and Radulov moving down from first line would provide excellent secondary scoring making it harder to matchup against the Stars on the road.
The fourth line would contain speed, size and tenacity with some scoring prowess. This line would be a good energy line and forchecking line. Gemel Smith and Jason Dickenson positions could be swapped if you wanted more size and scoring on the wing.
What I like about the lineup below is its still relatively young with the exception of Methot. I wouldn't consider Bishop over the hill just yet.
All the wingers on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd lines would be capable of 15+ goals. Obviously some of them much more.
Down the middle this team would be extremely strong, skilled and hard to play against.
This team would have lots of good options for both the powerplay and penalty kill.
Roster
Jamie Benn - Tyler Seguin - Val Nichushkin
Mattias Janmark - Ryan O'Reilly - Alexander Radulov
Roope Hintz - Radek Faksa - Tyler Pitlick
Gemel Smith - Jason Dickenson - Remi Elie
John Klingberg - Esa Lindell
Stephen Johns - Miro Heiskanen
Honka - Marc Methot
Heatherington
Ben Bishop
Hutton , Bernier or Hammond
