Foppa2118
Registered User
- Oct 3, 2003
- 52,347
- 31,515
Who in next summer's UFA market fits the bill as a cup caliber 1b C other than Duchene? And if we're banking on the draft to solve that spot for us; then who other than Hughes will be ready to fill that role in their draft+1 (or even draft+2) -season? If the answer is none & the ottawa pick doesn't land us Hughes, then we're talking about not being able to contend until MacK's sweetheart deal is almost over and we'll have to start spending over 30M just to our top line...
This why thinking long term is great & I wish our organization had done more of that a decade ago when Joe was still playing; but things change when your cup window opens like ours has. Now Joe is going to need to show some aggressiveness to capitalize on our cup window unless the hockey gods decide to give us Hughes to troll leafs fans.
Next summers UFA is better suited to filling the winger spot on the Avs. Stone, Panarin, Silfverberg, and Skinner are pretty good bets to test UFA. Nyquist and Zuccarello could as well.
As far as #2C's Pavelski and Staal could hit UFA, and they both may have a couple more decent seasons in them. They're both putting up good numbers this year.
The draft is where I think they could find a good #2C though. Outside of Hughes, I think Dach and Cozens might be ready to play in the NHL next year. Kakko I think will be ready, either as a winger or a center. Could be other guys as well, it's too early to tell.
Those are all the primary options IMO. The fallback option would be a trade. After they see how some of the guys look this year, and see what they get in the draft and UFA, I think that's when Joe would be ready to give up assets in another potential big deal.