100% agree

I would gladly upgrade Monahan to Toews for Calgary, he would fit really well under Sutter and have excellent synergy with Mangiapane (similar to his with Hossa). Can we will this into existence?

For the right price! Hehe

Your right price and the right price are a bit different though

i know this isn't the point of the post but is that strome trade realistic? cause i think the leafs (and us as fans) would be all over strome, 50% retained, for a 2nd.

also i do agree with the actual concept of the post.

monahan and a 1st, maybe?

yeah, if I'm Chicago, I'm focusing on firsts all the way.

it's so hard to say . . . . I see trade proposals that lean better and worse than that for Strome and somebody comes and cr*ps all over them no matter what. This seemed approximately in between other offers to me. But King is playing him regularly and on the power play now, so it's not a stretch if he goes on some 30 pts in 35 games tear and nets them a late first.

I'd do Monahan Lucic 1st and a prospect for Towes 50% retained. I saw someone mention this the other day

Why would Toews accept a trade where SM goes to CHI? He wants to win!

I agree and disagree at the same time.

I think it depends on how the rest of the season goes. I think there is potential to tank, sell off Murphy, Kubalik, and whoever else you can for some picks and prospects. Let Debrincat Dach and jones lead the way to the new age. Until Commesso comes into his own and we have a stellar young goalie again, we really arent going anywhere and we can tank for a few years to build up some nice core pieces. But, I will also play devils advocate here. There really is potential to transition this group into a winner. It will take some luck, for sure. Lets say we win the lottery this year and get Wright or Savoie. Theres instantly a piece that can step into the lineup in the next year or two and make an impact on a low cost contract. There are also some impact defensemen to add in this years FA (think Hampus Lindholm) to bolster our dcorps assuming De haan leaves. Lets say everything goes right and lankinen has a good year and fleury likes his time in chicago and doesnt want to leave. So then, you have a potential frame of
Debrincat-Dach-Kane
Kubalik-Toews-Reichel
Hagel-Strome-Wright
Kurashev-Entwistle-Hardman
Lindholm-Jones
McCabe-Murphy
C Jones-Kalynuk
Lank/Fleury

That really doesnt look that bad, does it? At full strenght, assuming the youngsters keep improving, this really does look like a decent roster. Now, you cant rely on pure luck, so thats where selling for multiple picks and prospects comes in, but a GM coming in has a tough decision to make. Do you want to be known for trading away Kane and Toews? Personally, I think we can do a reset without trading Toews/Kane, assuming they even would waive. Kubalik and Murphy can definitely fetch some decent returns, our goaltending has been bad enough this year to hold us down without a couple key members, and you worry about more decisions after you figure out whether you have a draft pick in 2022 or not. I think a LOT of weight is held on whether we get a top 2 pick or not

Well, if all they have to do is win the draft lottery, then sure -- let's wait for that and see what happens. I don't think they'll have a new hockey OPS and GM in there making these decisions until that point anyway.

But that team is still not good enough to be more than a playoff bubble team. And if that's your starting point for 2023, with Kane and Toews now 34 or 35 . . . it's not going to be anything more than playoff bubble squad unless they get really lucky and multiple players--Dach, Reichel, one or two defensemen--hit their ceiling.

Bowman's gone; they've got hockey and non-hockey reasons now to end this era and stop half-a**ing it.

Right. Generally I agree. I dont think this team as constructed is ever going to be more than a bubble team and that itself is a reason to rebuild off of some pieces we could get some genuinely valuable returns for. But I'm thinking from the perspective of an incoming GM. Would they want to be known as the GM that traded away franchise legends and attempt a rebuild, only to be fired by an owner when you dont win for 3 years? Because it seems like thats always what happens because owners are impatient. Tallon never got to see the light after drafting kane and toews. Gorton isnt going to reap the rewards for getting a core of Panarin, Laf, Kakko, Fox, and Shesterkin, for whatever reason. So a GM in this current climate might choose to go down the path of a faster retool rather than a rebuild, even if it isnt best in the long run