Out :
- Phillips (hope he retires or goes with a contender for a chance at the cup, we already have a lot of defensive depth for the bottom 5-7 where he should play. That's the spots for the Young Guns. But what we need right now is prime Phillips)
- Michalek (he needs a change of scenery, we need a change in the top-6, doesn't fit with Spezza anymore. So many injuries, sucks for him. UFA at the end of the year)
- Greening (I have always been very vocal about the "plays die on his stick", will start to have a bigger salary next year. And for now, we need all the bucks we can save. To justify his salary he needs to produce over 30 pts. With all the prospects coming up, no spots for him to do that)
- Hoffman : back to Bingo
- Corvo (isn't needed anymore so if we can get a pick, let's do it. If not, no big deal, keep him as policy insurance)
In :
- A steady veteran D-man in prime years (someone like Methot for example)
- A two-way veteran top-6 forward who can play with Spezza and Stone. Another MacArthur type ideally (late 20's) or ironically, a prime Michalek
- Mark Stone : less speed than Greening but a lot more hockey IQ and offensive skill. If our prospects, we need them to graduate and faster we will reach contender status
- Da Costa : the guy should be in the NHL, his skill, vision, IQ and poise is high end.
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Off-season/training camp :
- Condra gets traded when Lazar or Prince are ready to graduate. We still need his PK and defensive ability for now
- Trade Hoffman after the Bingo season, takes too long for him to have any kind of impact at the NHL level. Can probably play in the NHL but we will have better options IMO (Lazar, Puempel, Prince, Petersson, Schneider, etc.)
- Trade Gryba, Borowiecki and Claesson are almost ready
or we go all in and trade Spezza (I mean what would be a thread on this board without Trade Spezza?)
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Line-up :
MacArthur-Turris-Ryan
MacArthur2-Spezza-Stone
Conacher-Da-Costa-Zibanejad *1
Condra-Smith-Neil *2
Methot-Karlsson
Methot2-Ceci
Cowen/Wiercioch-Gryba *3
Anderson
Lehner
*1 Zibanejad takes face-offs too, they can interchange positions in-play
*2 shutdown physical line
*3 Let Cowen and Wiercioch the sophomores battle for ice time, and learn the NHL game sheltered a bit
Agreed. We're not contending this season despite what Melnyk thinks.
Whatever Melnyk thinks, he wants to sell tickets... Even if he didn't think that we have a chance in the playoffs or even get in, you need to keep a level of hope for your consumers. It's as simple as that and people discuss it way too much for nothing.