Drouin - Domi - Gallagher
Tatar - Kotkaniemi - Lehkonen
Poehling - Danault - Byron
Agostino - XXX - Shaw
1) Start Poehling off on the wings and switch him with Danault to let him get a taste of the center position
2) Trade Armia this upcoming off-season
3) Trade Danault next off-season (2020) to make room for Poehling as 3C
4) Keep Suzuki in the AHL the next 2 seasons
IMO, we are still one RW and a LW away from being extremely deep on offense:
Tatar - Kotkaniemi - Gallagher
Drouin - Domi - RW
LW - Poehling - Suzuki
Lehkonen - Danault - Byron
IMO, Shaw isn't a long term solution anywhere in the lineup. Byron isn't ideal on a line with Drouin and Domi on RW, or with a line of Poehling and Suzuki on LW, plus he would bring scoring depth to the 4th line with Danault and Lehkonen.
Could we land solid help for the middle-six RW and LW positions that need filling via a trade using available Cap space or the UFA market, something better than Armia, for example.
IF MON could sign a Gardiner as an UFA for the LD and Romanov made the team after next season, we'd be all set with Gardiner, Romanov and Mete (not necessarily in that order to start) on LD and Weber, Petry, Brook and Juulsen on RD as a top-7 D.
Up front, we'd only be a middle-6 RW and LW away from truly being competitive, IMO, the classic case of being a piece or two away from eyeing a Cup. Given the relative youth of the team, it might be worthwhile to give up futures, at that point, to fill those two holes and have a fairly long window for a Cup.