You forgot Dvorak. He's a C
Thank you - I forget they put him in the LTIR column there. So replace Schmaltz's name with Dvorak's or keep Schmaltz's name in there and give us those 4 as our Cs:
Schmaltz/Stepan/Dvorak/Hayton
Hayton would also likely be in his 2nd year, at best, so probably slotting into that 4th line. Take Stepan's name out of there, and it leaves a whole lot of question marks at the 2C/3C position.
Our goalie depth chart in the 2020-21 season is shaping up like this:
Raanta (signed through that year)/Hill (RFA - '19)/Miska (RFA - '19)/Madsen (RFA - '20)
I am assuming that at least 2 of the 3 RFAs get signed through at least 20-21 season.
The following netminders are free agents in that offseason: Holtby (WAS), Markstrom (VAN), Crawford (CHI), Halak (BOS), Khudobin (DAL), Vasilevsky (TB), Murray (PIT) - plenty of options as starters if we proceed to have Hill as the backup.
The following centers are free agents in that offseason: Backstrom (WAS), Granlund (MIN), Schenn (STL), Galchenyuk, (AZ), Smith (NAS), Namestikov (NYR), Spooner (EDM), Eakin (VGS), Coyle (MIN)
We have 9 players that are in the NHL now
and signed through 2020-21: 3 F, 5 D, and 1 G
We have way more to look at on the forward side with the number of RFAs that we have. That
could keep things very cheap for us, so we might be trying to reach the floor again, which is why Stepan's deal can help us get closer to there, relative to Raanta's deal. With the low number of forwards signed, it just seems like we would be creating a larger hole in the lineup by giving up Stepan, as opposed to clearing out a goalie who can't seem to stay healthy, but has looked good when he is healthy. We do still have Hossa's contract buried until after the 20-21 season, so that is the glimmer of hope regarding the cap hit, but I am also expecting floor and ceiling to rise as well, and contracts could look even further out of control.
Hard to say, but we do have a lot of NMC and NTC built up in our defense, and I worry that if we don't make some moves before those hit, we are opening ourselves up to lose some really talented young players, like what could have/did happen to the Wild with Haula and Tuch. I would much rather take a shot on a goalie with an average price tag (like we got with Raanta's extension), as opposed to looking to find the C in UFA and giving a price tag equivalent to Stepan's for a player that may not even be as good as Stepan.