MBH
Players Play
bolded players are players who have already “proved” that they are not good enough to be anything more than a 13th forward at most and I have italicized players that at most are 4th liners next year.
The targets being discussed in this thread are currently better than every single one of those players we “need to make room for” and likely better than any of them will ever be outside of Rasmussen.
Trim the fat. We’re going to be bad, but we need SOME NHL talent on this team. Idk if people realize how demoralizing it is to play on a truly terrible team. Adding at least one NHL caliber player allows for our younger players to play with better talent, thus aiding deveopment. If we’re even as good as NJ next year I’ll count that as a huge win for the psychology of this franchise.
If more than one of Erne, Perlini, or Ehn are on this team full time, it’s very telling. There is next to no downside on adding youngish players like Haula or Gustafson at this point unless you’re concerned that going from 31st to 27th-28th destroys are lottery odds too much or care about a billionaire family’s money. We either gain NHL talent that can be used in the future and helps young development of our players that don’t suck, get some assets to flip at TDL, or at worst they suck in years we are going to suck anyways.
This is not Buffalo adding Jeff Skinner and signing him to a terrible contract. This is the same mindset that gave us Fabbri only this time for no assets other than money
Regardless, we're not losing Abdelkader or Nielsen.
Flip, Glendening and Helm are here until at least the trade deadline.
Our suckass coach is coming back - and often, if you give him an NHL veteran - he's going to use him.
I'd rather head into this season with the chance of Svechnikov getting a top 9 role.
I also wouldn't mind seeing Givani Smith get a shot, even if in a 4th line role.
So I'm not really all that concerned about signing a veteran - wasting 40-50 games on him with the hopes we trade him for a third rounder...
When we've got prospects who've made it this far and need a shot.