Fenton built the center depth through the draft (7 of them picked in his 2 drafts).

Every GM is going to say we're building though the draft. Otherwise it shows lack of faith in the entire organization. A GM is going to say our scouts stink so we might as well just throw darts on draft day. Or that the prospect pool is rotten, and none of the guys are going to be anything.

I don't think they would have to send more cap but it would give them a bit more room to work with. If they can sign Ek, Kaprisov, Fiala for roughly 15M combined and one of Rask, Foligno, Talbot are taken in expansion that would leave them with roughly $5M to fill out one or two forward spots and one spot on defense. If Seattle takes Talbot that would make things easier as they can run Stalock and Kahkonnen and then would only have to fill one forward spot and one defense spot with that 5 million. If they inlcude rask in the trade or are able to trade him somewhere else that would give them more wiggle room on Ek, Kaprisov, Fiala if they want to do longer term.

Kaprizov needs to be signed to a long term deal, he has no arb rights and can't sign an offer sheet so it wouldn't be smart to bridge. I think he and Fiala will come in at $7M AAV each, Ek is probably worth around $3-4M. Hartman will probably want $3M so he'd be a cap casualty. We'd also have to fill spots for Bonino, Johansson, and Cole and then a couple depth players to keep the press box warm. If those 6 players cost $700k each, you're looking at an additional $4.2M AAV in addition to the $18M that Kaprizov, Ek, and Fiala will cost, so Rask would have to be sent to Buffalo. Seattle taking a big contract is ideal but you can't count on that.

Unless we have a legitimate shot at either Beniers or Johnson we shouldn't be concerned or consider centers in this draft anyway.

I disagree, I wouldn't say the need for a defenseman is immediate, but we absolutely should be looking to draft a top pairing potential LHD to replace Suter in this years draft, in the most defense heavy draft in the past decade and where all but two are LHD and all project to be a top 2 or top 4 defenseman.

Picking up both O'Rourke and Hunt during last years draft went a long way to shoring up the defensive prospect pool on the left but we still need a top pairing guy as we still have a need and hole for one there. O'Rourke is a great prospect but doesn't project to be anything better than a 2nd pairing defenseman, which is fine because he'll be the perfect partner for Addison. Hunt projects out to be a 3rd pairing player.

Suter is 35 and can't stay up there for too much longer, Eichel or no Eichel. Sure, Brodin could slide up there and take over for awhile but we still would need a prospect in the system within at least the next two drafts to cover for Suter's downturn. I'm just not sold he makes it until the end of his contract.

The 2022 draft is shaping up to be as good as or better than the 2015 draft. It's center deep, and also has some very good defensive prospects as well... all of whom who are righty's. There's also just about zero goalies that are worthwhile in it.

In my opinion we'd be blowing our God's gift to drafting a Suter replacement for the here and now. That isn't to say Eichel isn't a worthwhile trade-off, but it's not just about contending for a 2-3 year window in my eyes, but making sure we have a team that can contend for a decade plus. It would be smarter to make a play for one of the three franchise centers that will come out of the 2022 draft instead, all of which have a floor of say a Barkov. That would give us much better depth down the middle and make for a stronger contender in two to three years time than going after Eichel. One of Wright/Lambert/Savoie, Rossi, Eriksson-Ek, Sturm is a much better team and would allow us to maximize our current prospect pool.

To that end, I would also think we should seriously consider drafting Wallstedt as well. I recognize fully that we have Kahkonen, as well as Jones and Lindberg in the system as well. But none of them project to be a franchise goalie. Besides, by the time Wallstedt would be ready to come into the NHL, Talbot's contract will be done and Kahkonen will likely be just hitting his 30's. This would give us a solid goaltending tandem for a decade plus as well. All the more crucial for a cup contending team.

Just my two cents.

Ya you're probably right. Things will be too tight if they don't move Foligno or Rask in the deal as well or in a separate deal.

The only thing I would say to this is Eichel trade or no Eichel trade the only way that Minny gets one of those top C in next years draft is if they win the pick in the lottery. No team is going to trade away their pick at one of those Centers in the draft.

I'm aware of that, but given our lack of current center depth it isn't out of the realm of possibility that we could easily find ourselves in that position where we could. Especially if we play in our regular division next year. This year we're playing a lot of the lower teams in the league and proving we're better than them even without centers. By contrast the only really tough team we've faced so far is Colorado and we've taken them to a draw, but kinda caught them when they were down a bit and have yet to face either Vegas or St. Louis.

Next year the competition will be much harder in the central, and it wouldn't be a stretch if we fall to the bottom of the division. Our only competition in that regard could be either Arizona or Chicago.

This year we're also being bouyed quite a bit by Kaprizov.

JEE will be more than $3m-$4m if it's more than a 1 year deal. The way he's playing now it's in the $6m+ range. He's coming off his bridge deal, has played as a top tier shutdown center since last year, is finding the o-zone and adding points. His 5v5 points total this year will be scary if he and Fiala get on the same page.

I think Ek is likely to sign another bridge deal but this time in the 3-4M range. In the current economic landscape of the league he strikes me as a guy that will have to take a bridge again. I could be wrong of course but I don't see him getting term at high AAV at this point. Wait until NHL starts making revenue again and then cash in with some term.

There isn't a chance Eriksson-Ek gets more than $4M on his next contract. He would honestly have to crack and or explode for 60+ points this year in order for him to see anything above that, let alone $6M+.

A bridge deal as Yeet mentioned is the most likely scenario. 3-4x$3.5-4M would be par for the course and similar to what Koivu got as a comparable until he got paid as well.

See? I'm not just another pretty face.

Koivu's bridge deal would have been over $5m in today's cap... It also took him to UFA status, not RFA. They really aren't comparable. Koivu signed a 4 year deal after his 1st NHL season that took him to into UFA status. This is JEE's 5th pro season, with and ELC done and he's in the last season of his bridge deal. It's either give him a 1 year deal, or give him something term.

His 5v5 points last year were tied for 113 for FWDs. His 5v5 points this year are top-50, he's tied for 4th in 5v5 goals. His adv stats are back all of this up too. JEE is a top-6, 2-way center. He'll get paid the money fans on here were talking about giving an OS to Cirelli last offseason.