the D has held up because of the progression of Sandin and Liljegren, and how well Gio and Holl have stepped up. Further, because of how elite the goaltending and fowards defending has been. An elite but responsible forward core will be the key to our defensive success.

Everybody on that D core has really proved their spot of late. So bolster with a physical guy who can take on some minutes if needed when injuries arise or if Holl isn't playing well (he's fairly inconsistent).

Timo - pay big now, but can be used strategically and recoup some of the large price tag after the season. This would be a very Dubas style move.
O'Reilly - can you imagine more of a two-way nightmare than Matthews-Tavares-O'Reilly-Kampf? I can't.

You could mess around with those forward lines and have three two-way responsible first lines. Impossible to match up against that. And if they all buy in to playing two way which is the identity of this forward core when it's at its best, I'm not sure we could put forward a better team.

Timo would cost much more imo

Better delete the Meier trade before SanJose gets back from their lunch break...

suppose that would depend on your valuation of Niemela but yea quite possibly. I'd add more like Minten or something but not Knies and not sure what else they might want

Niemela has gone down from last year value wise imo, maybe last year was a fluke and he’s coming down to earth a bit

its issues with the new coach I believe. If that's the case for his value it should be able to be rebuilt when he comes to the Marlies next year, I don't think that was a fluke. But who knows I suppose.