Quoting: Birtle34
I hope he signs and the blueline stabilizes with the kids in next couple years, not sure if dubas can make this all work, pick a vet or 3 on the blueline and the rest have to come from marlies.
Stabilizing the situation with kids is a very tough one. Defence mature later in life , as in their 20s, just due to the harsh nature of playing defence and being good enough to make it.
Also, you want to protect and develop talent instead of throwing them in the fire , which will come to haunt you in 2 ways.
1) They **** up and get booed out, and lose their confidence, that will ruin their full potential of being and development.
2) Throwing rookies into the nhl is also bad because if they don't feel protected by the team, or feel their development is working, they will rather get traded than signed.
I would prefer signing one big defensive guy, and barrie and then getting 1 or 2 rookies to get work on the defence playing maybe 5 mins a game or longer depending on how they are doing.