Honestly people can debate if they think he is a star like Panarin or not. The question everyone needs to ask is if he can fill a hole we need as a low risk high, reward player to at least be a decent winger. I think that answer is yes when you look at what else we have right now. He doesn't fix the Wennberg center problem but he does help fix the talent level of the forward group.
Exactly. Not sure why it’s being looked at as “Panarin level or bust”. Even if he’s a low-end first liner or even only an average 2nd liner, that really helps our team, if the cost is just $4M/yr and someone like Nutivarra. I’ve never seen him play but given his stats in the KHL AND Olympics AND WC in 2017/2019, I don’t think it’s a bad bet he will be at that level. If he is Panarin level, even better.
It’d be a lot of wingers, but then you could maybe do a trade like Bjorkstrand for a 2C (with minor add on either side, depending on who exactly the other 2C is) and also move Nyquist over to RW. If Gusev isn’t up to snuff as a 1st liner, you could move Nyquist back to 1LW (might be a little thin at RW, in that case). Presuming Gusev is at least a low 1LW/ high 2LW:
Gusev - PLD - Atkinson
Tex - XXX - Nyquist
Foligno - Jenner - Anderson
Fourth line some combination of Nash, Robinson, Wennberg, Hanni, Dubi. Make Bemstrom play his way on the team. If he’s good enough that we can’t not play him, even better.
If you don’t want to trade Bjorkstrand, could do something like:
Gusev/Nyquist - PLD - Atkinson
Gusev/Nyquist - Jenner/Wennberg - Bjork
Fligs/Tex - Jenner/Wennberg/Fligs - Andy
Fourth line with remaining parts similar to what I laid out earlier.
Z - Jones
Murray - Savard
Kukan - Gavrikov
Harrington