Rakell is someone i was interested in as well. Great contract, prime age but stuck on a rebuilding team. I think him coming out after our top line with kadri would be deadly.

Yeah, I love me some Rakell...and Manson if we're gushing about current ducks...

Unfortunately, I can't imagine they'd actually part ways with him unless Jost was having the kind of season that Joe wouldn't trade him during/after...even if I'd love to make a trade like this even if Jost was pacing for 45+ points, approaching the deadline.

Oh no i agree, a trade for him would be very heavy in prospects and picks, we'd have to make it very worth their while.

I’m all for Rakell, but we’d be selling low on Jost. He actually played pretty well in the playoffs and lets be honest, didn’t have much talent around him.

Playing with Kadri, Donskoi, Bura should set him up better than last year to break out. If he can get to 45-50 points I’d be very happy.

I do think that Jost becomes tradable if he has a meh season. It’s really nice to have Newhook in the system now!

Mack
Newhook/Jost
Kadri

Will be the best center core in the league in 2 years.

Oh this hypothetical trade came up from a discussion of what we were hoping might happen around the TDL and I was assuming that Jost was pacing for 40+ as our 3c, to make that package tempting enough for them to consider giving us Rakell. But I'm not a believer in Jost's skating letting him make that kind of two-way impact in a top 6 role...at least not with how fast we play. Playing 3rd line minutes against bottom 6 competition? He can thrive in that role, as we saw down the stretch, but he was dealing with 13 minutes a game, not 16-17...and those against inferior skaters.

Now for a team who plays a lot slower, like Anaheim, I think he could cut it as their 2C behind Getzlaf/Zegras if he has a good summer & builds off of last season. But I fear that we play too fast for top 6 minutes not to wear him out, and he hasn't played as well on the wing...where his skating is less of a drain on his game. So we'll have to see if he can crack our top 6 that way...even if I'm not expecting all that much from Bura and, despiting liking Donskoi, I realize that he's a middle-6er not a legit scoring liner.

Which is why I'd like to combine some of our assets into a single piece like Rakell; who could be that 5th quality scoring liner for us, that all of the teams who've won multiple cups have had.


As for Newhook, I think the idea/hope is to prepare him to take over for Kadri when it comes to decide between giving Nazem 9per or letting him go. So we can give Newhook a year or two in college before starting him off on the wing of one of the top 6 lines, before transitioning to C...kinda like the way MacK's NHL development was handled with Staz centering him in his rookie year.