Understand the post above. Of course, its always hard to buy the "we will improve internally" line of thinking, except for maybe the young D, where we have enough prospects that at least a few will hit in addition to Klinger and Nemeth.
Problem with that is, our core is Benn and Seguin, plus Klinger, all about 25. Their prime years will be the next 4-5 years, and that is when we need to gear to win.
Sometimes, young D men take that long to mature, and be in their prime. So, if we can't acquire a sub 30 year old prime guy, we may still have the D merry go round.
Our goalie situation seems set for 3 of those 5 years, and they will be past their prime, in all likelihood. Will that team, with a rookie JC or Desrosiers still be a contender?
I presume we can keep a group of forwards around Benn and Seguin, although, see the cap problems of PIT and CHI (which Chicago has overcome, PIT has not....which will we be when our big guns get market contracts?
Short version, it is always difficult to build a roster that all comes together at one time, usually for a 2-3 year span at their peak, a la the 1998-2000 Stars. The six year run of the Hawks is nothing short of amazing, and I don't think we have the overall talent level they do. In addition to the two FW, they have had top 2 D in place that whole time, which we simply don't have and don't have a clear plan to have, other than "wait and see what we can get at a reasonable price and/or let the kids develop.
It was sure easier back in the hey day, where Gainey bought a team of ready for prime time vets to supplement his core in their prime.
BTW, missing out on the Hamilton trade, which would have been absolutely perfect for us, and maybe a few other trades mentioned are hard to take, but this is what fans of other teams probably felt like the last two years when the Stars seemingly won the off season, by obtaining the supposedly impossible - two top centers.
