I'm not trying to troll or anything, but I think we should trade Eller. It is something that's very possible regarding the fact that he is an RFA after this season and we have other centers that are more suited for their positions.
I hope that he keeps his consistent performance up in order for us to get a great return at the end of this season. If he thinks he is such a great center to go around accusing other teams (*Cough* Oils) of being a junior team, maybe he should be able to back it up and become a point-per-game player don't ya think?
Well.. he did apologize according to this article
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl...haracterizing-oilers-as-junior-team-1.2187522
But what he said isn't the whole point. Galchenyuk will likely center our top line starting next season with Plek centering our 2nd... We won't get anything for DD so might as well have him center our third line (his cap is NOT THAT BAD for a decent 3rd line center.. his underproductivity right now could be coincidential as Eller's producitivity).
I know I don't have a crystal ball, but how I can foresee that Galchenyuk will become a better top line center is because his performance sparked from the get-go, as opposed to Eller it took him a bit (hes 5 years older than Galch) and Galch plays more like a natural center considering the fact that he tends to get much more assists than goals, unlike eller who currently has more goals than assists and there have been a previous season where he didn't get enough assists.
I may be pulling a puck-hog card here, but I remember last year when Eller got sore at Galch for stealing his "goal" (in a joking manner). Stuff like this shouldn't be happening in a team setting.
I know most of you want to trade DD because of his size and contract, but DD isn't all that bad since he is faster, and his cap will be cheaper than what Eller will ask for during the off-season. I would complain if he was still centering our first, but hes our third center now and I don't feel the NEED to trade or buy him out.
So what needs to happen in the off season is trade Eller (unless if he has a spectacular playoff run that gets us far) and buyout Briere. We don't know what we would get for Eller or use Briere's cap towards, but even a 1st round pick from a non-playoff qualifying team wouldn't be that bad, it'll be similar to Schneider - Horvat trade.
So assuming we received a pick for Eller, and no changes to the roster as been made, the lines could look like:
Pacioretty - Galchenyuk - Gallagher
Bourque - Plekanec - Collberg
Thomas - Desharnais - Bournival
Prust - White - Moen/McCarron
Subban - Markov
Emelin - Gorges
Pateryn - Beaulieu
Tinordi
Obviously we could gain and/or lose during the free agency frenzy but we have a lot of good resources within our house. These lines will be great, I mean we'd have 3 of our best forwards on our top line, second line is the usual two vets and Collberg (who should and would be able to produce at the second line 2 years after his draft.. he was projected to be a top 6 forward within a couple years when he was drafted).
Third line would put one of our best prospects, Thomas, on the wing (if Kristo was still here, he'd be put on the roster by next year, so Thomas better make up for it ;D) and Bournival, who as you know is already producing. Our checking line wouldn't change much other than maybe giving McCarron some NHL experience.. eating up little minutes at the NHL level is better than staying in juniors for a physical guy like him.
Also why is Pateryn in before Tinordi? well he is a better physical presence. Many of you forget that Tinordi isn't really much of an aggressively physical type of player, he is just tall but doesn't have the weight. Pateryn is solid like Dougie Hamilton and he may become stay-at-home, but overall I'd go with him to pair up with our offensive D Beaulieu.
Let me know what you guys think.