I don't think we "need him" but if he turns into that Kuznetsov piece who comes over a few years after to reinforce the pre-existing core that will be an amazing addition. Realistically, if he comes over in 2 years that will be about Year 5 of Tavares, so you'll have an overlap between his ELC years and the last few years of Tavares' contract. You'll have one guy on the downside of his career, and possibly a high end talent to plug in and maybe replace him.
Agreed. I see it as, ideally, Nylander is the Tavares replacement at 2C and Amirov/Robertson will slide up to replace WN's offense on the wing and emerge as a new core piece.
You need these ELC pieces to supplant your core. Not just Connor Brown's, Trevor Moore's, Andreas Johnsson's, etc. but legitimate mid-round pieces that end up being core players ala Sharp, Point, Guentzel, etc. Very positive sign that the Leafs may have that coming in Amirov, Robertson, and possibly Abramov if he can continue on this trajectory.
This is why you swing for the fences on upside in mid-rounds.
