However, three of our grinders are UFA at the end of the year, and another one is vastly overpaid and could be moved as soon as the taker is there. Without Beagle, Fehr, Ward, and Laich, we're left with Latta, Wilson, Chimera, and a question mark like Brown.
It is my opinion that Sobotka in his last year with the Blues was the best shutdown center in the league, right up there with Stoll probably. Definite upgrade over Beagle and even Fehr. In his last year in the NHL, Sobotka was above 0.5 PPG. On this year's Caps, he would be fourth among forwards in PPG, higher than all of our grinders.
Via the arbitration, he received 2.725m, which is more than reasonable, considering that it's pretty much consensus Fehr is gonna get 3m+, so for a team up against the cap, Sobotka is the real asset.
Backstrom - Kuznetsov - Sobotka - Latta is a great line-up down the middle. If they can re-sign Fehr at reasonable price, they can move Sobotka to LW having him take face-offs where a left-handed player is preferred and be a premier PKer.
Sobotka - Fehr - Wilson, good luck playing against that third line.
And anyway, a chance that Sobotka comes to play in North America is much higher than a chance a fourth or a fifth round pick pans out.