Roster To do list, starting in house:
0. Assume we lose Robinson in the expansion draft.
1. Sign Seth Jones. Ideally 6-8 years 8-10 million per season. Hopefully he's a nice guy and gives us an extreme discount in the neighborhood of 8.5. Slap the C on him, and establish a new identity with the new coach.
2. Sign Patrik Laine to his QO for one year and see where it goes. Or, explore trade options if a 1C becomes available for him. Ideally you keep him but all options are on the table.
3. Pick your goalie of the future. I think it'll be Elvis. So if we go off that assumption, I don't believe Korpi will return much. I would say a 2nd round pick, since we don't have one, would do the trick. But I hold out hope he can be a sweetener in a deal for a center or top 6 forward.(Probably after expansion)
4. Let Grigorenko and Stenlund walk. Retain Matteau, Dalpe, Macinnis, and Sherwood for AHL depth. Tell Sherwood this is his last chance and the only path to an NHL career is to start throwing his body and becoming Josh Anderson (as far as physicality). Sign Texier and Peeke to 2 year extensions.
5. Keep Bayruether for depth, and one of Lehtonen/MDZ. Explore trade options if possible for Carlsson and Harrington and dump one of them, ideally Harrington but more likely Carlsson. Kukan too if you get anything decent. Hold firm on keeping Werenski/Jones/Gavrikov.
6. Get a top 6 center. Either via trade, UFA, or whatever.
7. Get a 2nd pairing defenseman. There are plenty of capable defenseman on the market.
8. Acquire bottom pairing/bottom 6 "identity" type players. At least one or two. By identity players I mean guys like Calvert who won't put up stats but can help establish the new order. There are usually plenty of guys like this in UFA. This includes the return of Nick Foligno.
Nyquist-Top 6 Center-Laine
Domi-Roslovic-Bjorkstrand
Foligno-Texier-Atkinson
Identity player/Jenner-Identity player/Jenner-Bemstrom/Foudy/Sherwood/Other identity players
Werenski-Jones
Gavrikov-Top 4 fill in
MDZ/Kukan/Carlsson/Lehtonen-Peeke
Elvis
Matiss/UFA fill in
This roster isn't spectacular but I think its a bubble team, and this is just using the method of signing guys since its hard to factor in trades.