All this talk of trading Perry is puzzling. Yeah, I'd love to move him but that's easier said than done. He's owed $24M over the next and last 3 years of his deal. His production has been declining and he's old and slow in a league that is getting faster and younger. I'm sure some teams would still want him but not in any way that the Ducks could be happy with. For starters I'm convinced it would require 50% retention which is the max allowed. Then you would have to be happy with pretty much nothing coming back or maybe even a partial cap dump. And of course there is that NMC which means if Perry doesn't wanna go there, he's not going. Wanna buy him out? Sure, for a mere $18M he's gone. Just for reference that's more than Henry got for Vegas entering the league. Think he wants to give that to Perry and then pay somebody else a comparable amount to actually play for the team? I don't think so.
It's time for a whole new thought process and a new direction from management. After you get a new coach Perry probably needs to shuffle up and down the lineup like Maroon used to. Maybe you buy out his last year if it helps you with ED. You build a 4th like trying Roy, Kossila, Terry, Jones, Steel along with maybe Grant. You hope one or two of those young guys has the ability to maybe slide up in the lineup during the year. You move Silf because we stop focusing on a shutdown line and you let Rico shift between 2C/3C/2W as needed.
There's a lot of talent still here and a lot of options when you commit to playing 12 forwards every night with a 4th line getting no less than 8-10 minutes or more every night. It just takes that totally fresh look on how to compete in today's NHL.