As far as my list goes:
- A legitimate 4th line. I mean this in all sincerity. Been thinking a lot about what Vagrant said awhile ago, about Adams-Adams-Larose knowing their role and not just being a bad 3rd line, but actually bringing energy and grit and being pests if not more. I think we've potentially got 2/3rds of this with Malhotra and Dwyer. For the other guy, I say look to the league minimum FAs. D'Agostini stands out on the list, to me at least. Glass, Thornton, Asham. As for callups if one of our 4th liners gets hurt, maybe give Blanchard a shot. Our 4th line has looked good (comparatively), to me at least, in the past when it had those type of guys on there. While we weren't huge fans at the time, I'd much rather have Tim Wallace flying around hitting everything that moves and Adam Hall coming up and playing a solid two-way game than what we decided we'd rather have, which is Bowman occasionally scoring a goal when it doesn't matter and Westgarth doing literally nothing.
- A top 6/9 winger. Obviously easier said than done. I say take a chance on someone that'll be cheap, maybe on a low-risk high-reward contract. Say what you will about his production this year, but Dany Heatley won't be making a ton, will be looking for a fresh start somewhere, probably will prefer a 1-year deal, and still has it on the powerplay. Not saying it definitively, "go after Heatley," but that kind of move is what we need to be looking for. Depth scoring. We don't need to pay another guy $7 like Gaborik, Vanek, or probably even Moulson (won't make $7mil but WILL be overpaid). Also possibilities here with a player we get back for Ward.
- Trade Ward for picks. This is the toughest on this list, IMO. Trade Ward, no retained salary, receiving no salary back. Probably impossible. Lots of different possibilities on this front, which will obviously change things like our potential FA signings. For the purposes of this one route, I'll say we end up keeping him.
- A new coach in Charlotte. Looking at you Scott Walker. Let's get someone that will actually maximize our players' talent. There's enough empirical evidence at this point that suggests to me that Daniels has run his course here.
- 2nd pairing D. 1st pairing D won't come easy. But a 2nd pair guy that can play good minutes behind Faulk/Sekera would be huge. I don't think that's Pitkanen, but if it is, yes, him. Otherwise, looking at guys like Ranger, Niskanen, Greene, etc. I don't think Hainsey will be back, even if he is I think we need to take a hard look at our D and see if he's a fit. In the end, D wasn't the issue this year (numbers-wise anyway), so this is further down the list.
- Draft the best player for this franchise, not the best one next year. Pretty self-explanatory. I think that as muech as we would love for it to happen, this team probably isn't going to be great next year, no matter how we do in the offseason. Expecting someone to come in and be good right away, at the expense of getting the best guy for the future, is not the right pick. Yeah, right now I think Ritchie's the best fit.
- Re-sign Tlusty for less than $2mil. Really glad JR didn't pay up after last season. That being said, Tlusty is a pretty good 3rd liner, and that depth scoring is needed. Assuming the "real" Tlusty is somewhere between last year's and this year's, I don't think 20 goals is out of the question, especially if they decide he works best with EStaal after all.
Potential lines next year:
Heatley - Staal - Loktionov
Tlusty - Staal - Semin
Skinner - Lindholm - Gerbe
Thornton - Malhotra - Dwyer
Faulk - Sekera
Hainsey - Liles
Harrison - Murphy
Bellemore
Khudobin
Ward
D's not any better, but we need to score more goals, and that top 9 has some pretty good potential with some nice line combo possibilities.