I don't think you can trade a guy who is pretty much guaranteed to be a stud and potentially the next Crosby for some question marks. Now those are some question marks with very high potential but I wouldn't do it.
Lindros was traded for question marks and we built a dynasty off of that trade. It really comes down to how you view those specific question marks and what you can do with them. Personally I'm a fan of those specific guys, at least the two forwards...haven't seen enough of Hanifin to know if I believe the hype on him or not, but our scouts have. If they think he's the goods I'd love that trade. That is enough high end pieces that we can afford to risk McJesus living up to the hype and still end up a better team for it given the pieces we already have.
I'm a huge Leon fan, and not only cause he's german. If he's developed properly and keeps working on his skating he will be a really gifted playmaker with great size and fine defensive instincts, like a bigger Staz. I am certain that Yakubov will explode once he lands with a proper organization, like scoring 30+ goals in his first season out of edmonton (depending on where he lands) explode, because the little fella just tries so damn hard, has such an absurdly good shot if he regains his confidence in it, and has so much talent. He needs a good coach to get him back on track and rebuild his confidence but I was a huge fan of his coming out and he still has all of the things that made me so fond of him if he ever gets developed. Add an apparently exceptional defensive prospect like Hanifin, and the freedom that trade would give us in terms of what return we need for ROR; and we'd be set up for a dynasty.
Say we made a trade around ROR and someone like Hamhuis, we could roll into next season with:
Yakubov - Duchene - Iginla
Landeskog - MacK - Tanguay
Leon* - Malkin - McGinn
Highlander - Winchester - Everbeast/Talbs
Hamhuis - EJ
Stuart - Barrie
Holden/Hanifin/Siemens - Redmond/Holden
Varly
Pickard/Berra
*as the year progresses Leon takes on more and more Center duties from Malkin until he's playing well enough for us to try out Landy-Leon-MacK if Tanguay needs a lighter load
With Hanifin and/or Siemens, Bigras, Gaertsen, Wood, Butcher; Rendulic, Bleackley, Henley, Schumacher, Smith and the other smurfs, Nantel/Magyar; the goalies, and this coming drafts other picks, down on the farm.
We'd suddenly have the organizational depth to really make the most of our players by growing them slowly, and we'd have enough young talent that's already breaking through/broken through/soon to break through, that we would have so much freedom tweak things through trades. All around a really extraordinary young core that would be simply load, from top to bottom at all positions.
