I'm starting to feel more optimistic about our chances next year. Let's go get a proper #2C (i.e., not Brassard. How about we trade for Ziba?) and a top #4 D (come back Methot!), keep everybody including Karlsson, and with the infusion of youth from Chabot and White we should be good to go.
Hoffman - Duchene - Dzingel <- mucho chemistry
Ryan - #2 C FA - Stone
Smith - Pageau - White <- or trade Smith and move MPS up
MPS - McCormick - Pyatt <- give MPS $1M for one year.
Gaborik, Paul, Burrows <- send Burrows to orbit plz
#2 D FA - Karlsson
Chabot - Ceci
Boro - Wideman <- would love to see Wideman back and given more responsibility on the PP and 3 vs 3.
Claesson, Harpur, Jaros <- good D depth
Our AHL team could be stacked, with guys like Brown, Chlapik, Batherson, Gagne, Luchuk, Perron upfront, and Jaros, Englund, Lajoie etc. in defense. We just need to surround them with SKILLED veterans.
And I haven't even considered who we pick in the first round...
Of course the trick is getting two top FA players in the current team context... But I find it strange that we're talking about a rebuild while our top players in Karlsson and Duchene are under contract for a whole other year. We need to give this crew one more shot, and if we're out of it by the deadline then sure, let's do a firesale.