OMG I realize you haven't had a chance to look at it in depth. I for one am a bit puzzled by Oshawa's moves. Consider this. For this year barring other moves they acquired Salinitri, Saigeon, Neuman( not the one from Seinfeld), Mattinen and Moore, They gave up Henderson,wong Brassard and Studnicka. So are they better? Imo slightly better but unlikely to put them over the top. Then next year they lose the 3 OA's they have acquired, 4 99's ( they have 7) and big one Keyser. They gain Neuman, a great add, and Moore who I agree will be very good but is unlikely to be dominant as a 17 y.o. D. So are they better next year? Not so sure as losing Keyser is huge. So do these moves put them over the top next year, not as of now imo. Argument can be made he will upgrade next year but Hunt has depleted his draft board. By my count with player trades and the pick trade with Ottawa they acquired 4 seconds, 3 thirds but gave up 7 seconds and 3 thirds. So they lost 4 seconds. Now i know they had a pretty good draft board before all this but it won't be as good now and will limit moves next year. I would submit that in the end the moves might be mostly lateral for both years and although the gens are gonna be very good the next two years they might have spread things too much to be great in one.
It’s all based on perspective and motivation.
IMO
1> The Gens were going nowhere fast this season. They were much better on paper than the ice. I believe these deals may shake that tree up enough to make a positive difference. Either way, it doesn;t matter because /i don’t see them getting out of round two no matter what they did. That said, Keyser is very strong and he cou;d win a series under the right circumstances.
2> I dont like Brassard much. They replaced him withNoore who I believe is almost as good now. Maybe a stretch but that’s how little I think of Brassard.
3> Neumann is a huge add for them. He returns next year as an OA.
4> Saigeon easily replaces Studnicka. IMO, Saigeon is a better player than Studnicka right now.
5> They can replace Keyser with a Euro next year
6> They are going to bid next year for the 2021 Memorial Cup. They need something tangible for that team and part of that is proven success. It is hard for them to throw in the towel this year and keep those picks and surrender and gain credibility.
I think one of the biggest things for Oshawa is their willingness to juggle.
I have them down two 2nds and a 4th vs staying status quo. I think they get a couple 10ths though....or something similar. They’ll pay more than that next year for a player like Neumann as an OA add so they are ahead of the game IMO plus they have him this year, not to mention Moore.
I think at the end of the day, they couldn’t justify being a seller. They were too strong. They would have had to add. So, they did add. Each of their OA positions were upgraded. You could argue Neumann and Studnicka are reasonably similar enough. Then toss Moore into the mix going forward. To me, they are clearly a better team than they were two weeks ago hands down.
Regarding Guelph, any team can simply puke away all their picks and players. They took advantage of Guelph at the end which is good for them but overall they are ina. One year push.
Heck, if Ottawa wanted to puke away all their picks and players they could’ve had a guy like Suzuki on the 4th line and Hoefenmeyer running shotgun with Phillips on the 3rd pairing! IT doesn’t take a genius to do that. I think for OShawa to draw up a pan to get better this year, better next year and add a cornerstone D-Man for a Memorial Cup bid and only be down two 2nds is a major coup.