If Hutson Makes it Next Year

Personally, I see him in person, he clears Harris, Barron and Struble easily.

I feel like Reinbacher is going to be pushing for a roster spot as well. Trade kovacevic to open more room for him and place Savard on the third pairing and I think you are close

Call me crazy but I'd rather see him and Reinbacher in Laval next year. If they trade one of Harris or Struble then I think they're planning for Hutson in the NHL but otherwise I would give him another year

Canes pass

He's making a strong case for himself already but you're right
That said Mailloux has the inside Track with established Chemistry with Xhekaj and a strong ability to lead PP
While we can keep players down to an extent Struble has 14 games left til he requires Waivers . Xhekaj, Guhle and Barron have 1 year or 40-70 games from lowest to highest.
Hutson unlike Struble and Harris wont blow through his Waiver Exempt because even though he just turned 20 by MTL signing him for these final 2 games his Waiver Exemption days went up by 55 games i believe it was? or maybe just 50? anyways it went up by a lot is the point . Had Hutson waited til after MTL's last games then this isnt an option. Its why i dont get why fans are upset about burning a year because when we signed him he was only eligible for 2 years at his age but because the season wasnt over for MTL and he was 19 when he started the 3 years was allowed. we lost nothing and Gained a lot of Flexibility we may need.

Plus Engstroms no Joke
Overachiever who's 20 in a SHL Final waiting for his opponent
If he continues to have everything go his way in 2024 then he'll hit the ground running when he joins Laval likely in the next week and a half if Skalliftea can beat Frohlunda tommorrow.
Always being in a Left D heavy system to get minutes he became a Left Shooting RD so good he rose up in World Juniors due to versatility and through the SHL as well.
For Context Wallinder his Teammate turned Pro after 2 years in the same team and Wallander out scored him by 1 point in those 2 seasons with at least 4 games remaining for Engstrom.
Question becomes is the Transition going to hit Engstrom as hard as it did Wallander ?

Camp this year will force moves
If we're smart we try to leverage some players into Picks at the Draft
Kovacevic for a 3rd of 4th rounder would do it for me
Maybe try leveraging Matheson in a trade to a contender to take back a player they cant afford or maybe they just have too many forwards and limited Cap but Need Defense.
Either way you try for a Matheson deal in the summer IMO while he's riding career high numbers. Maybe move him to EDM for Ceci a prospect and a 1st
EDM being cap strapped Mathesons extra year at 4.8m can help them short term anyways and Matheson can eat up as many minutes as Ceci.

We can just RS and Flip Ceci or Savard at the TDL and pay to have someone else RS on the other.
Move out Matheson, Savard, Ceci and Kovacevic from the Draft to the TDL so youth can step up.
Come summer 2025 if a hole is still there we'll acquire a veteran short term to mentor them but i feel Guhle/Xhekaj could handle leading the Youth Core at this point