I kind of disagree here, and say no: Shero does not NEED to go after college UFAs. I think there are better means of getting wingers. I would be THRILLED if we could get simply ONE more legit top-6 winger, which we can accomplish by trading Martin or Orpik in the summer.
Also, I believe some of our forward prospects are being sold short, and at the top of that list, is Tom Kunhnhackl. Yes, Kuhn is a boom or bust player, but this is a guy who has absolute, legit top-6 potential. The key for him is that he has to get healthy, and he has to have a breakthrough off-season training regimen like Beau Bennett did last season (with TR), or Nazem Kadri did (with Gary Roberts) or even Simon Despres (with Pascal Dupuis eating Brussel sprouts). Kuhnhackl's shot/release is virtually as good as anyone on this team not named Malkin/Neal. He's a real, real sniper, and he's got great offensive instincts. He goes to the net and will go to the dirty areas, he's got great size, and very importantly, he's very good in the transition game and making plays up the ice, making short passes, long passes, and nice little drop passes or give & goes. He could be a GREAT fit with Neal & Geno on the LW, but can play both sides; and his one-timer is MONEY on the PP. He could give us a serious 2nd unit PP shooting threat from the half-boards. This is a guy who could be considered a project now, but in a year could be a guy we could be talking about as an A-level prospect who projects in the top-6.
I also think Archibald could end up being a better version of TK (i.e. a really good 3rd line energy forward, who brings speed, grit, and could score 15-20 goals). While I wasn't high on Bryan Rust before this season, it's hard to ignore what he's done (like Samuelsson) to put himself back on the radar. He could also be a really nice bottom 6 forward who could replace a guy like Matt Cooke on the 3rd line, or Craig Adams on the 4th. Uher could be a good character 4th line forward in the mold of an Adams, and Wilson and (to a lesser extent) Megna are skilled forwards who may/may not make an impact. And then at the higher-end we've got Blueger & Sundqvist who are longer-term prospects, but have a lot of upside. So I think we have a really nice mix of different types of forwards who can fill in, in a variety of different positions.
And the key is this: with Bennett and Neal, to go along with Malkin/Crosby/Sutter, we have 2 legit top-6 wingers who are young and will be here for many years. So, at worst, we really only NEED two wingers to fill in. And where some may differ from me, I believe the following: re-signing Iginla will be a TOP priority, and I think we have a real, real chance of being able to retain Kunitz, Dupuis and Cooke, as well. Sure, we may have to sacrifice an Orpik/Martin on D, but if the cap goes up again after next year, there's no reason why we can't keep all those guys. If we assume Kunitz, Dupuis and Iginla (and maybe Cooke) can give us 3 more years of service (very reasonable considering Kunitz and Dupuis are playing at the peak of their careers, and both of those 2 and Jarome are in ELITE physical conditioning), then we've got time to see which of our prospects I mentioned above rise to the top of the heap, and have some very good assets (i.e. Orpik/Martin) that can bring us a very good return.
So I'm really not worried about our long-term future at all if we can re-sign most of those guys, but I do think that this will be a VERY busy summer for us and we'll have to make some tough decisions to move out some players who have been with us for a long time. If it were me, I'd move Orpik + TK + Glass this summer, and then look to move Martin either next year during the season if our young guys step up, or in the following summer when he still has another year left on his deal. If we manage this correctly, we could set ourselves up for years to come, like Chicago did when they had to trade some players and re-loaded their team with a lot of top prospects/good young players.
