We need changes. Time to get some young speed into the lineup. So not sure of what this gives us for cap compliant but here goes.
Lucic - Krejci - Top Winger
Marchand - Bergeron - Connolly
Smith - Spooner - Pasta
Koko ? (or cheap energy vet)- Talbot - Ferlin
Z - Dougie
Seidenberg- Morrow
Krug - (Miller - Mc Q- new guy ?)
Out: Paille, Campbell, Bartkowski, Soda - rather use the $ toward a top line winger
Traded : Kelly, Erriccson
Trade bait - Seidenberg
May lose McQ also due to $
Team as is can't score - adding a top line winger, Connolly, Spooner, a bigger (?) Pasta, and the 4th line fix who can't score much less than they do now, should help alot.
i think the team faces another johnny boychuk situation with lucic going into his ufa year. if its me making the decision, I cant see myself giving him a 6 year deal so right off the bat I suggest dealing him.
Eriksson im not so quick to deal because I think his next contract could be a bargain. he might agree to a cap hit under 4 mill if he gets long term security.
id definitely talk extension with these two before I made a choice which one to deal anyhow... but assuming we deal lucic instead of Eriksson here is how I could see the team going...
our best line sees us tryout Connolly with the proven duo Bergeron/marchand
our new top scoring line moves Eriksson to lw so he can play defense for krejci/pastrnak
our new third line gives spooner a chance to finally make the team with smith helping him out and maybe someone we get from the lucic trade fitting in here too
Kelly and Talbot become 2/3 of our new fourth line and I am comfortable putter ferlin in here too but there will be comp at training camp.
Id try to get some more size/grit into the lineup when opportunity presents itself... the loss of lucic will be a huge loss. id definitely see if nick Ritchie is available from Anaheim or consider trading for kassian or signing stewart as a ufa.
trading lucic and replacing him with someone much cheaper like stewart or kassian frees up all the cap room necessary to fix our blueline too then
on the blueline I continue to rely more on Hamilton to take over top responsibilities... I tell chara to start taking it easier as he helps Hamilton develop.
I definitely give morrow a chance to become a factor in the 3/4 partnership and if Seidenberg manages to get fully healthy he is still welcome to play on my team.
krug to me... is a specialist but is a very useful specialist. id want miller around to address some concerns I have for size. I think mcquaid and bartowski will become casualities to ufa.
id want to bring in an ufa vet in case Seidenberg doesn't bounce back/or morrow cant step up. luckily there is cap room available
all in all the loss of guys like soderberg/lucic seem big on the surface of things but I think the overall team could improve with all the moving parts and getting our cap under control becomes huge when it comes to flexibility for significant trade deadline opportunities
