But what about beyond next year? Downie, Stastny, and Mitchell will be UFA's next summer (good riddance to Mitchell) and if we're trading Sgarbosa, do we have any young forwards to make the jump? I don't see any, given Hishon's concussion issues. I think Jones will bounce back, but who knows if the Avs will try to get out of that contract.
Seth Jones looks like a great prospect, but he won't fix the defense by himself and he's going to have growing pains himself. I don't see a reason to give up out first, Sgarbosa, and another pick to move up a spot or two. The other players available could help this team immensely too.
That's pretty far to look into the future, but I do get your point. Overall I think Jones is just too good to pass on that kind of a deal. If a player like Sgarbossa and the team's 'lack of F depth' is the thing holding you back, you're in worse shape than anyone knows.
Is our prospect depth up front anything special? Hell no. But at the end of the day I am very pleased with key guys up front, who are young and proven NHLers. Many teams would be pretty jealous of our forward group with or without Sgarbossa.
For me, I re-signing Downie, so that's not an issue. Who knows about Stastny. If he is traded, I'm sure you would net a capable D first and foremost with a capable depth F also being part of the return. If not, signing a bottom 6 winger is pretty easy. Sure, it's nice to keep all of our prospects but I don't think Sgarbossa is going to be the key to our future. I mean, I think if we're lucky he ends up on a McGinn or Jones level of NHL player.
I think in 18 months time guys like Connolly, Heard could be possibly bottom line players for us, who knows. And who knows about players like Condon, Walker, Meurs, Carey, Nermark etc etc could be by that time. Development of players like them is an in-exact science. And that doesn't even include Hishon. He could be healthy, he might not be even playing hockey anymore.
At the end of the day, I think we're in pretty good shape even if we don't have guys like Stastny or Downie. I don't think the team will just let Stastny walk for nothing. They'll either trade him or re-sign him to a cheaper deal.
At worst it would be for ~60 games until the trade deadline next season and that assumes there are no injuries. Philly has done this for years with their centers. Montreal is doing it will Gally. I'll agree totally that it isn't ideal, but it isn't the worst thing to do to a player.
If the choice is play Mac on RW to start the season or leave him in the Q, I will choose RW in the NHL every single time.
Well, everyone has their own opinion I guess.
I'd rather see Pajamas over Mitchell or Jones with Staz. He hustles his ass off and actually helps create offense with Stastny.
