Attempt at some upgrades

The Chychrun ship sailed at the trade deadline. If Matt Roy stays, Los Angeles won't have the cap space for Chychrun with all of their RFAs to sign (including Quint Byfield), and if Matt Roy leaves, the cap space opened up will be better spent on keeping the team together (including re-signing Viktor Arvidsson or finding a replacement for him to play with Pierre-Luc DuBois) and filling both goalie vacancies.

Boqvist is terrible, absolutely unusable defensively, and doesn't do anything offensively either. You'd be hard pressed to find a player who is a worse fit for what Ottawa needs.

Also Ottawa should be well beyond the stage of "gambling" on the starting goalie position. They need someone legitimate. The gambles have never paid off. Got some good years out of Forsberg as a waiver claim, and Nilsson was solid in spite of his health, but that's about it for competent goaltending in the post Anderson. I'm done with the maybes and could bes.

I can see L.A. trying to offload PLD. He doesn't seem to be fitting in very well in L.A. So I doubt they acquire anyone to play with him unless they can't move him and they....well possibly....

Rob Blake can't afford to admit that he made a grievous mistake acquiring Pierre-Luc DuBois and then signing him to that contract because it would mean his immediate dismissal, so PLD will survive into his NMC. My lugubrious prediction is that he gets better next season, improves in 2025-2026 too, and then when it's time to replace Anze Kopitar, regresses into the surly underachiever we all foresaw he would be.

Works for the Jackets if it works for Ottawa.


Don't be absurd. He's got a lot of weaknesses defensively to be sure (though he's looked better when he's played this year), but offensively he's been a really good contributor, especially on the power play. His biggest issue so far for the Jackets has been injuries.

Whether or not that skillset is actually one Ottawa needs is unknown to me, but you're selling him short.