Joined: Dec. 2022
Posts: 2,755
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Personally I don't really love or necessarily like the idea of adding Yamamoto, Puljujaarvi screams Paajarvi to me would claim him on waivers with where we're currently at and certainly take him back in a trade if the value in doing so going the other way was essentially a wash or just a necessity out of cap constraints for Edmonton. I think Ceci is useful to a degree, don't love his contract, nor the player but I think he could be useful in a scenario like this. Bouchard is where this all hinges. I think he's going to essentially have a career like Faulk, which isn't bad at all, but I think he's going to always be a better offensive asset as opposed to a defensive one.
This could be feasible for the Blues if we changed the way we deploy our defense and instead run it as just rolling two pairs and not having a pair that's labled as a shutdown pair which is the crux of alot of our issues since we cannot for the life of us since Jbo retired find a capable LD who can handle the minutes and do well in that role both moving the puck and defensively.
if this happened, I'd be ok with it, but not thrilled. We most likely wont be able to replace Parayko or what he brings in terms of sheltering the rest of our defense or at least having the ability to do so if given a suitable partner for many years. Ceci somewhat softens the blow, but it's going to be ugly for a while.
Personally i'd like to think that we'd heavily explore moving Faulk, Krug or leddy first. Adding another 1st is great if we're going to work towards moving at least a few of them for more near term help or move up with them which I think we likely will try to do.