Why are we adding Gavrikov? Alexyev is waiver eligible so we can’t send him down. We don’t need another defenseman right now. That’s also a fleece of a trade for Columbus.

no need for gavrikov. only addition we should be thinking about adding is a top 6 forward

Remove Puljujarvi, Gaunce, and Snively and this works. We do not need or want more wingers, especially ones with term on their contracts.

Backstrom isn't coming back. Look at the other hockey players who have had the same surgery, Ed Jovanovski and Ryan Kesler. Their careers were all but ended by hip resurfacing surgery. If you research it, athletes in general typically don't come back from this. The surgery will help ease the pain they're going through and help their quality of life overall but not help them get back to performing at their peak levels. We all love Backy but the reality is that he's not coming back, and if he does he won't be at the same level he used to be.