So the cubbard isnt bare???
It may sound weird now, but I think Jones is actually less of a need them an elite offensive talent like Drouin or MacKinnon.
EJ, Barrie, Siemens, Elliott and Wilson is a solid core going forward. Perhaps dealing Stastny for a top 3 D if we draft a forward this year is the way to go.
I've thought about this before as well, especially if we can add at least one veteran like Streit or Scuderi. It's not good to be blind to the fact that we have some players with bright futures coming in, but at the same time going all in on Siemens becoming a top 3 two way defender is a little dangerous.
One of the reasons we don't have much high end forward depth in the minors is because all of our guys (Sans Hishon) have made the NHL as regulars very quickly.
It all depends on how you look at it, we can take the risk that Siemens hits his potential and select a high end forward. Which will probably result in some pain next year, but could look genius in the end. However if Siemens does not pan out, then we are stuck with no real backup plan, as Defense is expensive to trade for.
Looking at this after breaking it down, I think I'd rather ensure that our defensive core becomes dominant. Then worry about adding more scoring down the road if what we have isn't enough. I'm also a believer in the idea that our forwards offensive output is being stunted a little by the combination of pylons we have on the back end, and Sacco's lack of offensive creativity. That's my opinion though.
How many guys do we have that can hit 20+ goals? Duchene, Landeskog, McGinn, Downie, Parenteau, Stastny, Jones (Well.. usually).
Possibly Mitchell (If he continues to contribute offensively.), and I'd say O'Reilly could do it as well. Hes on pace for about 15 right now but I think he can hit 20 or damn close to it over a full season.
That's 9 possible 20 goal forwards with one or two 30 goal guys thrown in. If we found at least an upgrade on Jones somewhere either in free-agency or in Sgarbossa. We'd be fine offensively IMO...
Honestly I'm not really sure that we will have a choice though, unless we trade up to #1 over all. At least the way it looks now.