Brent Burns wont make it to free agency. It's really easy to look a summer ahead and see how many great free agents there are. Almost all of them are signed before July 1st.
Last summer a year out there was as "top pairing guys":
Byfgulien
Seabrook
Giordano
Erik Johnson
Yandle
Only Yandle wasn't re-signed by his team and he didn't even make it to July 1st, ended up being traded for a pick before the draft and signing with Florida.
If the deal for a guy like Barrie is there. You take it. If you don't, this season is a write off, and next season we're in the exact same position saying "let's wait a year and address it than."
I had this exact same argument this time last year when people were suggesting we wait for all the big name free agent d-men this season.
No way is this season a write off if we don't get Barrie.
Oilers need to stop making excuses and play up to their potential, they still have a ridiculous amount of talent on their roster, now they have a ridiculous amount of size to go with it, and two absolute horses on the blue line in Klefbom and Larsson who are just entering the prime years of their career. They have Sekera who's a solid 3, and Davidson who played like a very good 3/4 d-man as the season went on last year. They have Nurse who is going to be a 6 foot 5 beast.
They have Connor freaking McDavid. They have three centers more skilled than any center the Oilers had other than Doug Weight for about 20 years there. And they even have wingers to go with all those centers.
Enough with the excuses.
Larsson with New Jersey got the Devils to 84 points and they may have even made the playoffs if Cammalleri didn't miss 1/2 the season. They have no where near the talent, size, depth that we have, they have no PP QB stud either.
Plenty of teams make due with several holes on their roster. If we can get a PP QB great, but if we can't it's time to stop whining and suck it up. Beyond that Klefbom and Davidson both have strong shots, Larsson has some ability from the point too. Develop it (like every other team does).