BleedBlue14
UrGeNcY
At least we're getting movable pieces. Kap, Vrana, and eventually Hayes (with another 50% retained) should fetch decent returns in trades if we keep sucking.
That's kind of my viewpoint of it. There should be some decent interest in Kap at 1.8m, Vrana at 1.3 and Hayes at 1.8 (approximate evaluations of cap with 50% retention) if things don't work out with our defense and goaltending to where we need to accrue some assets.
Not to mention I think the Blues were targeting a high character guy, or at least moreso a big locker room presence. I feel like we've been shipping alot of those guys out. I'm fairly ok with Hayes, I don't think there will be a better option in free agency and the cost of acquisition is dirt cheap. If he's a 3rd line scorer, we could certainly do worse than a full offense center at 3.6 chipping 45-55 points. He doesn't move the needle towards contention, but I think he makes us better than finding a different stop-gap that's currently available.
I'm interested to see what the line combinations will look like. I don't think we'll make any other forward acquisitions that will move towards the top 9. We don't really have any matchup players currently, but our whole top 9 has some certain elements that can negate needing that. I'd be interested in seeing something like
Buch - Thomas - Kapanen
Vrana - Schenn - Kyrou
Saad - Hayes - Blais
I think the 1st line is pretty well balanced and can possibly play against top opposition while scoring with them and being more responsible.
2nd line is pretty heavy offensive tilted, although I could certainly see the argument for swapping Thomas and Schenn, I just think they want Thomas to ascend to a player that can be relied upon in all 3 zones, I don't think you'll get that playing him with Kyrou for a full game.
That 3rd line could seriously do some damage in a cycle game eating up some clock while chipping in a bit. Blais has earned a shot in the top 9. Could also see Schenn switched with Hayes there. Saad - Schenn - Blais was pretty good in short sample size last season as well. I'm just not sure Hayes could keep up with Vrana and Kyrou.
Regardless if we really want to be competitive we're going to have to do something with the defense. We just don't have the pieces on LD to afford sheltering Krug. Faulk himself needs to be swayed a bit more towards offensive zone starts as well. Leddy did really well given the circumstances last season although watching him is fairly unspectacular I can't argue with the production from him on the scoresheet. Parayko really does need his load lightened. It's not realistic to ask him/Leddy to be able to sustain doing what they were asked to do last season year over year. In a perfect world, moving out Krug and Scandella for pretty much no value and finding a LD that can fit better would be beneficial, I just think it will be hard to do seeing as how precious cap space seems to be right now even with a weak UFA class.