I still wish MB could pull a trade Eller+Emelin for a winger or something like that to give a chance to Tinordi and move Galchenyuk to center and DD to 3rd line with Weise and Kassian. But overall it's more positive than last year.
One of the things I like about the team is the center depth, and to me trading Eller would be a step in the wrong direction. I'm not even advocating he should be given more offensive duties, he simply fits his role on the third line like a glove. I'd hate going from a position of strength with Galchenyuk/Plekanec/Eller to a position of weakness with Galchenyuk/Plekanec/Desharnais. If we want to move Galchenyuk to center, he'll need some people down the line-up to shelter him defensively. Eller can do that. Desharnais cannot.
The beauty (or silver lining) of keeping Desharnais around as a winger on the 3rd line is that if any of our top 3 center goes down, he's someone that can jump in and keep the machine going. If you trade Eller and lose, say, Plekanec to injury, what are you left with? You have to either promote Hudon or mutate DLR to center, and in either case, it's not an ideal situation if the plan if to make some noise in the playoffs. I wouldn't want to go into next season without a safety net. Keeping all three of Plekanec/Eller/Desharnais is just that, a safety net.
To me, that's the best we can make out of our current roster on opening night:
Pacioretty - Galchenyuk - Gallagher
Semin - Plekanec - Kassian
Desharnais - Eller - Weise
De La Rose - Mitchell - Smith-Pelley
Galchenyuk/Plekanec and Gallagher/Kassian are interchangeable and depend on the chemistry that could develop between some of the players, but at the end of the day, I'm one of those that believes Eller isn't and expendable asset at this point in time, and likely not going forward either considering one of DD or Plekanec will probably be let go at the end of their current contracts, if not both, although I do wish we resign Plekanec.