me wan da poonani
Joined: Sep. 2020
Posts: 4,857
Likes: 4,243
I don't hate Acciari for that price, he's pretty good, but I'd rather just roll with the depth forwards the Devils currently have and keep the 3rd.
Way too much for Meier.
Zetterlund and the 3rd could be comfortably be removed and it'd still be a VERY rich return to the Sharks.
I don't like the idea of bringing McCabe in.
For starters it's an egregious overpayment for a #4-5 guy, Sharangovich alone would cover all of McCabe's value.
But ultimately there really is no need to bring him in as the Devils have such amazing depth in the D pipeline, depth that extends further than just Hughes and Nemec.
Bahl, Okhotiuk, and Walsh are all pretty much ready for full-time bottom pairing responsibilities already and by the end of 23/24 it wouldn't surprise in the slightest if at least one of them have outright developed past McCabe.
With two years of development in the NCAA there's little doubt in my mind that a 20 year old Luke Hughes wouldn't excel paired with Marino in the Devils top 4 next season, outright replacing Graves in the lineup.
One of Bahl, Okhotiuk and Walsh should step into the 3rd pair spot vacated by Severson (though whomever would get that spot would admittedly by a downgrade from Severson).
There's also Mukhammadulin who's coming over at the conclusion of the KHL season.
With 3 years of full-time KHL experience I'd expect Mukhammadulin to be a pretty good NHLer by next season already.
This next year's D corps would likely be a small step back from this year's, but should still be top 10 in the NHL:
Siegenthaler - Hamilton
Hughes - Marino
Okhotiuk - Smith ( / Walsh / Bahl / Mukhammadulin)