What we lack in quantity in our prospect pool we make up for in quality. I don't know what else we add but I cannot imagine it being substantial considering we are would be handing the NYR their past/future captain and a player who can do just about everything. You're right about retention but I no longer believe that we are in a position to remain conservative. Karlsson could be off the table but that doesn't mean someone like Stralman is either. Something like a 2021 3rd rounder is absolutely worth the whole of Callahan's salary if it means the best possible player. Right now we are paying a guy almost $6 million to sit in the press box until called upon and it's not worth it to me to trade him simply to lose some of the salary. This isn't even about Karlsson anymore it's about any player. Because if any portion if Callahan's salary the difference for a player who helps us win the Cup then it's worth it to me to bite a bullet.
I'm tired of same team, same coach same mistakes year after year. What do we have to lose? Regular season records and 1st round exits? We cannot possibly botch this worse than giving up Gusev for absolutely nothing but Jason Garrison. Trade Callahan, trade Palat, rustle jimmies and spend their money on players who don't feel sorry for themselves when the going gets tough.
Everyone is right.... Cooper did NOTHING different and yet we could magically go out there and take it to the Jackets with nothing more than effort alone for 10+ minutes at a time.
I disagree on the fact that we have a quality prospect pool. We have no elite talent, no top line potential, Foote can be top pair but more a low end 2 but more likely a 3, few 2nd line talents, just a lot of bottom 6 potential. We have no goalies especially with Ingram looking like he's done here. No D outside Foote that look like NHL quality, Masin should be a bottom pair guy at worst but he may never be more than your typical 7/AHL call up guy. ABB is our top forward prospect which is concerning since he was just signed as an undrafted player last year, he put up a lot of points but a lot of them on the PP, is on the smaller side and doesn't play that gritty of a game like a Gourde.
Look at my prospect rankings in the prospect thread and the top 10 isn't great, the top 5 is ok but not special. We aren't the worst prospect pool but we aren't a top 10 team anymore. We are definitely a bottom half team, probably in the 20 spot.
I would love to dump Palat, Callahan hell even Miller since Cooper seems to not like him. I just don't think Brisebois wants to shake things up just yet and thinks this core is good enough. I just think we are in for another good year and unless Stamkos grows a pair we aren't winning it all again. Maybe after he fails his first time as the GM he will make some moves to address the issues.