Have to say I don't really love this team, particularly I don't really love our centers. Ek is great, but while Rossi is promising I think it's a mistake to pencil him into the top 6 next year since he hasn't played for almost a year and the last time he played for an entire season was in juniors. I'd like to see him marinate for a while in the AHL until he lights it up down there. Sturm and Gaudreau are fine bottom 6 guys I guess.

Blue line is a tad worse than last year after the Suter buyout (I know there were other factors at play like expansion), but I like the Kulikov signing and Addison looked like he could be really good.

I'm still on team acquire Eichel if the price comes down, but I feel like not making any upgrade at all would be a big mistake.

Upgrades are essential, but the cap is already used. I am pretty sure that agents would fleece GMBG once again with Fiala, Kaprizov contracts so that we would not be able to afford even my low cap stop gap players.

I was more thinking that we should trade Greenway or Fiala for an upgrade down the middle, but that's easier said than done obviously

I would think that Greenway, Fiala, and a first would get Eichel. But Buffalo is stuck on getting prospects and not taking salary back (which they won't get), but that's what they want.

I'm still not convinced that we'd get our return on investment for Eichel.

This is a very small team, especially in the d-corps. This team isn't very good and isn't very bad, it's just a meh fringe Wild Card team. Do any of the d-men play all 82 games next year?



I don't think Eichel is an option anymore. I do agree an upgrade is needed at center. I just don't trust GMBG to make that upgrade, it'll end up being something like Fiala+ for Malkin.

Looking at the team again. I think the lines were just mixed up. I'd do

KK Ek Zuccarello
Boldy Hartman Fiala
Greenway Rask Foligno
Svech Gaudreau Bjugstad

It leaves Rossi in the AHL for a bit, but when he's ready he takes Hartman's spot. Same players, but I think this looks alot better.

Lets wait for the training camp and then see. Not a fan of OHL/QMJHL stats (strong preference to WHL and NCAA), but i think Rossi is NHL ready if those health issues did not affect him drastically (ie if he was not having any kind of workout for a couple of months, which is likely but idk).