Quoting: BeastModeUnknown
I get what you are saying, but I would like to improve long-term which would be cheaper to go via your own farm. Because 1-year deals if we are really gonna face it it's a stop gap. Granlund okay yeah he might be good goal scoring for now, but once we have to re-sign our guys and he's gone the guys we have to look at haven't improve through NHL time. Kyrou, Alexandrov, Joshua, Toropchenko, Kostin, (I firmly believe that Reinke is not a solution) but Reinke for Bortuzzo is an option. I'd like see them explore with Perunovich, and Tucker, and Mikkola. I would like to see a better backup but the best backups are all older guys, that if go down we don't have a better option. I wouldn't look at trading for one because I'm not so sure if anyone wants to trade their backups. I would like to see Halak, or Khudobin come our way, but its not very likely. I understand we are in win now, we have some issues to address, but not short-term I would like to see a trade rather than a signing, and it potentially include someone who has a huge contract that we can't afford anymore. In my opinion and I know a lot of people think it's a bad idea. Perron, Tarasenko, or Schwartz. One of them might be offloaded. I would look into trading for a different goal scorer that might be better performer, and maybe even one who gets less injured than Tarasenko. I don't think Granlund is that long-term guy. I'd rather look outward. I want Faulk off the books is what I really want , ,Scandella as well.
Yeah none of the UFAs are great, I was just speaking hypothetically if you have money to burn and don't want to give up any assets it's a quick way to improve the team short-term. 100% trade is the better route and that's more realistically what we're going to have available to us.
I guess if I'm looking at weaknesses for this team it's this:
1. Do we have enough scoring up front? Perron is older, who knows what you get in Tarasenko, Schwartz has been good lately but has a spotty injury history.
2. Backup goalie - kind of along the lines you were saying, what do we really have in Husso? He was good down the stretch in the A but had been pretty inconsistent before then. If he's not ready, we saw how that basically cost Toronto the playoffs last year.
3. Right side D - love me some Parayko but yeah I think Faulk is basically a third pairing defenseman at this point (that was true even going back to his Carolina days) and as I said idk that Bortuzzo is an everyday player ideally. Perunovich supposedly plays the right side occasionally so maybe this resolves itself eventually and I'd like to see him get a few reps next year.
So my top priority would be addressing scoring in the top six. We've got Sanford up there- some are optimistic, I am not convinced there's anything really there. I'd love to see him dangled as a trade chip for a legit twenty goal scorer.
I think it's tough to trade Perron without knowing Tarasenko's status and tough to trade Tarasenko because his value has never been lower. If you're content with taking a step back and writing off this season I think a Schwartz trade works to gain assets. But I think we can contend now in the prime years of O'Reilly, Parayko, Krug, Schwartz and Schenn, even Perron to some extent and would like to see us target one of these forwards from Tampa or Vegas now that we've got some cap room. Kilorn, Palat, Marchessault, or Smith I think would be a good addition to tide us over till Tarasenko is 100% and just for added depth afterwards. They've got some term. but their cap hits are not egregious enough to be prohibitive to us signing out guys next year.
I really think Vegas is a good partner. They need centers badly, the only natural center they have is Karlsson and their riding with Cody Glass in their top six with is not ideal. They're also over the cap, and we've got a bit of space. I made a trade for Marchessault (mostly cause he's been in the rumors and he and Perron are buddies)
here that I think addresses both teams needs. And then with the expansion draft we'll probably lose a Perron or Sundqvist type and that + Bozak's retained + Gunnarsson clears enough space for us to get through.
Like you I'd like to see us run with a few of our other prospects and I think we will in the bottom six in the next few years as guys like Barbashev/Sundqvist/maybe even Blais leave the team or price themselves out. However, other than Kyrou I don't see any of our prospects being surefire (as much as prospects can be anyway) bets for the top six, so we gotta bolster that somehow. I am really high on Mikkola and Perunovich being quality NHLs and Perunovich could prove to be something really special.
As for Faulk, I think you gotta call Jim Rutherford and the Penguins every single day if you want to move him. Dude traded for Mike freaking Matheson, maybe he'll give us Letang for Faulk lol.