Yes and no.
Yes in the sense that we could not bring in another center for the rest of the build and center would still very likely be a strength with Matthews, Nylander, Kadri, Gauthier long term.
No in the sense that you don't suddenly shut yourself off to getting centers when that option arises. You can never have too many of anything. If you have 5 centers 1 goes on the wing, 6 centers 2 goes on the wing, etc, etc.
D should be a slightly bigger focus since centers and wing seem really strong right now, but if a center or a winger makes more sense than a D then you take them.
It's like Stamkos. I'm not saying going out and sign Stamkos whatever the cost, but I keep hearing people say, use the cap space on D instead of Stamkos. If there was an elite Stamkos level D available in free agency it would be a no brainer that we use that space on them before Stamkos. However there's not. There's Yandle, there's Demers. But neither is a long term guy to be a solution. I hate using free agency for mid range players. It seems like a total losing proposition. You spend on your young core, and fill the bottom with cheaper talent. Spending for middling talent to fill out the top doesn't work. So yeah at the right price I'd go for Stamkos. If we can go out and acquire a young D that we can use that money on great, but I'm not sure I like Demers for a lot of money for a long time at our current point in time.
How that relates to this thread. Well Stamkos is a center, so basically just saying don't just cross off players because position. At equals you go for the need. If a center is the best option available go for it, the rebuild isn't over yet so we don't have to definitively have our future D set by the end of this offseason.
