If the team continues tracking in the direction it is, I think we may see a trade this summer or perhaps even before that.
Rantanen and Mackinnon should absolutely be non starters under any circumstances. After that, I dont think they should trade EJ or Landeskog. Both are guys who give it an honest 100% effort pretty much every night, and are still very good effective players and on solid/great contracts.
That leaves us with Barrie, Duchene, and Varlamov as the "core" guys who could be on the table. Personally, I really dont think Duchene has been a problem and I think he's someone we should be keeping around. So for me that would leave Barrie and Varlamov. I think its becoming more and more clear that while we all know the tremendous talent Barrie is, he's also just not fitting in well with what Bednar is trying to do. If we can find a good trade that makes sense for us, I would definitely be into moving Barrie.
And with Varlamov, it's hard to say. Still think Pickard will be a future starter in this league, but I also think it's becoming clear this year that he still fights some consistency issues and needs to sort through those yet before being thrust into a starters role. If we do move Varlamov, it needs to be an off-season trade where we can also go out and sign another good goalie to form a 1A/1B tandem with Picks for the next couple of years. Either that or we need to get a goalie who fits that decsription back in a Varly trade. Halak, Niemi, and Elliott are a couple guys who would fit that bill via trade.
The possibility of adding another Top 5 pick into this teams core is exciting, really makes the future incredibly bright looking when you have Rantanen, Jost, Zadorov, Greer, Compher, Bigras, and another Top ~5 pick added to that group, to go along with Mackinnon, Landeskog, EJ, that we already have.
But, if that scenario does play itself out, it's also another very long year for us fans likely with lots of arguing out of frustration to play out the rest of the year.