*Dave Nonis heads to the post-season upper management meeting, just days after his New Jersey Devils finished 29th overall in the league standings*
"Well guys, we finished 3rd last, which we can all agree is a horrible year. We have a good draft pick, again, and our expiring contracts leaves us with a good amount of cap space. Any ideas on how we approach this offseason?"
*Pro Scout 1 raises his hand*
"Go ahead Bill."
"Well we have a nice young defenseman in Kurtz who's won the best AHL defenseman award for 2 years now, how about we never call him up?"
"We've already been doing that Bill. Any other ideas?"
*Amateur Scout 1 raises his hand*
"Any ideas, Rob?"
"Well this entry draft is pretty strong and we have a high pick but we should draft a player that should have been taken way later in the draft to send a message to the players that this is all on them and we aren't going to help them out."
"No, we tried that last year and surprisingly, it failed."
*Pro Scout 2 raises his hand*
"What have ya got, Louis?"
"Well we lack scoring, and Mike Hoffman, one of our best scorers, is a pending free agent. So, what I suggest is that we lowball him so much, his agency gets pissed and he tests the free agent market."
"That's a good idea, Louis. We should definitely look into that, but that's not bold enough. We need to do something bold."
*Assistant GM raises his hand*
"Let's hear it, Weylin."
"Well boss, the way I see it, we lack offense and goaltending, but defense is our main strength. So what we do in free agency is..."
*dramatic pause*
"We add more defensemen."
*Nonis freezes in his spot, contemplating this idea*
"That's an excellent idea."