Playing around with Tankathon and I picked a random draft order and made an off-season gameplan, continuing from my last summer's idea on rebuilding in phases or waves, I got 1 and 4. A little optimistic, but not best-case scenario:
1. Ottawa (from SJS) - Alexis Lafreniere - Dorion has had success from the Q.
2. Detroit - Tim Stutzle - Yzerman returns to Adler Manheim.
3. Anaheim - Quinton Byfield - Getzlaf's replacement.
Sens trade picks 4, 21, 33 to New Jersey for 6 and 10.
4. New Jersey - Lucas Raymond
5. L.A. - Jamie Drysdale
6. Ottawa - Anton Lundell - Head European scout Mikko Ruutu is a big voice in this year's draft. He's close to NHL-ready. Plays the game the way the Sens want to play it - defensive specialist, high compete.
7. Buffalo - Marco Rossi
8. Montreal - Alex Holtz
9. Chicago - Cole Perfetti
10. Ottawa - Dawson Mercer - Maritime connection with Trent Mann. Plays a 200 foot game but is also highly crafty offensively.
Cap will be down next year. That is incredibly valuable to the Sens. At the end of draft day one, Sens have 46, 51, 54, 64, 73, 95. Dorion trades Logan Brown, Erik Brannstrom to Tampa Bay for Mikhail Sergachev.
51. Ottawa - Cross Hanas - LS LW, high end raw skill, just lanky and not getting a ton of opportunity on a stacked team. Portland connection with Bobby Strumm.
54. Ottawa - Brock Faber - RS RD, we know Dorion and Janecyk like the NTDP. Faber looks like a potential steal to me; very smart defenseman.
73. Ottawa - Yegor Sokolov RS RW, QMJHL again, maritime connection. Dorion likes overagers on occasion, and Belleville is being depleted by graduations, Sokolov can jump right in.
95. Ottawa - Landon Slaggert - LS C/LW, NTDP again. Just a good depth player.
Try some Euros in the late rounds. Maybe a goalie, if he's Europe or NCAA. No junior keepers who will be AHL-ready in a couple years.
Trade Duclair for MacKenzie Weegar plus 2021 5th. Weegar has played a lot of difficult minutes in FLA. Say what you will about his upside, if you're looking for a defenseman who can play hard minutes at a cheap price, Weegar is a stud. Sign C. Brown for three years and Tierney for two. Go into 2020/21 with:
Alexis Lafreniere - Chris Tierney - Connor Brown
Brady Tkachuk - Josh Norris - Bobby Ryan
Rudolfs Balcers - Colin White - Artem Anisimov
Nick Paul - Filip Chlapik - Drake Batherson
veteran depth signee
Thomas Chabot - MacKenzie Weegar
Mikhail Sergachev - Nikita Zaitsev
Christian Wolanin - Mark Borowiecki
Christian Jaros
Anders Nilsson
Marcus Hogberg
AHL:
Alex Formenton - Anton Lundell - Vitali Abramov
Michael Carcone - Parker Kelly - Jonathan Davidsson
Jonathan Gruden - veteran signee - Chris Wilkie
Markus Nurmi - Mark Kastelic - Yegor Sokolov
Andrew Sturtz
Olle Alsing - Jack Dougherty
Maxime Lajoie - Jonathan Aspirot
Andreas Englund - Lassi Thomson
Joe Daccord
Filip Gustavsson
Kevin Mandolese to ECHL
loan Mads Sogaard to a lower European pro league, where he'll get starts.
Play the Tierney line a lot early in the year. Over the course of the season, as prospects develop and players gain value, trade Tierney, Anisimov and Boro throughout the year for picks and prospects who can help the AHL team short-term, as Lundell and Formenton will go up to replace them.
After there is no Cup awarded this year, St. Louis will want to keep the core together and keep trying. Pietrangelo will cost them at least 10 million if they keep him. Even if they don't, 7.5 for Schwartz, 7 for Binnington, 5.5 for Dunn, 3.5 for Sanford. And I think I'm being conservative on some of those. Depending on the season he has next year Robert Thomas might cost 6 or 7 million, which probably does't leave them much room to fill out their roster. The Blues want to keep their core together and keep going after Cups. Sens offer something like Connor Brown, (an ideal third line winger with two years left on a decent contract), Rudolfs Balcers , JBD and a 2021 second round pick for Robert Thomas. Maybe we can give Seattle a pick or prospect to take Bobby Ryan, but most likely they take a goalie. Draft Brandt Clark with a top 5 pick. Go into 2021/'22 with:
Tkachuk - Norris - Batherson
Lafreniere - Lundell - Thomas
Formenton - White - Ryan
Paul - Chlapik - Davidsson
Chabot - Clarke
Sergachev - Zaitsev
Wolanin - Jaros
Marcus Hogberg
Anders Nilsson
AHL:
Gruden - Pinto - Sokolov
Nurmi - Kelly - Abramov
Crookshank - Kastelic - Mercer
Novak - Lodin - Wilkie
Alsing - Thomson
Lajoie - Guenette
That's assuming all of the prospects turn out decently. Of course some may need to be filled with AHL signings.