I do agree with you on that - even if you discount this year as being an outlier with his crazy shooting %, Horvat *is* a good player, by all accounts a great dude, and getting a guy who scores goals and is good on the power play addresses the biggest issue that the team had.

But yeah - even after a couple nice wins the team is still on the outside of the playoff picture, their prospect pool is in the bottom quarter of the league, and I don't know if this is the move that gets them over the hump. I'll happily eat all the crow possible if they make the run in the last third of the season, but it's going to take a big turnaround going forward.

The only possible credit I can give Lou is that he knows something we don’t about Wahlstrom being much closer to healthy than we think. Then we might at least get to see this:

Lee-Horvat-Barzal
Palmieri-Nelson-Wahlstrom
Parise-Pageau-Bailey
Martin-Cizikas-Dufour

See, THAT offense along with our current defense and goaltending I can get behind. We could be a really sneaky dark horse type playoff team. But this is all unfettered optimism talking here

I strongly doubt this was a trade for a pending UFA. He must have had a "Will you accept this type of package if we trade for you" conversation. It would blow my mind if he doesn't extend very soon.

Really don't think Dufour is ready, no point in rushing him. Hopefully Clutter/Fasching is healthy after the break.

clutter makes the team worse and the isles should be tanking , so I agree with this

I’d skate Fasching over Dufour, but we have much less wing depth between losing Beau and way too many injuries.