I'd rather not think about having to have 36 year old Jacob Markstrom in net with no way to get off of him.

Got to be better than what you’ve got now

I think there’s more interesting and better offers than what TOR has offered here for Hanifin AND Bread. I’d love to have Bourque back in a Dallas trade but idk if it would happen. It seems similar to a Mercer situation in NJ, they just don’t want to trade him.

Goaltending honestly hasn't been the main issue since the start of December. The biggest hole is on the backend and forward depth.

The 4th line has been getting caved in for a WHILE. Before McLeod went away the assumption was that we just needed to get healthy there (Because McLeod was capable of turning the 4th line into a quality one no matter who he was with). Now I think we need another guy back there to replace one of Bastian or Nosek. I very much like a Yakov Trenin or Jake Evans for that role.

On D Siegs has been out and Bahl hasn't been consistent enough, and obviously Luke, while fantastic, is still a rookie and prone to rookie mistakes. our absolute biggest need is a Penalty killing, strong defensive Dman who can fire accurate passes and let us get into transition. Hanifin comes to mind, as does Marcus Pettersson in Pittsburgh.

A long term replacement for McLeod is also something to look for. If it wasn't a PR nightmare I'd honestly being going all in to get his brother.

Hughes-Haula-Toffoli
Hischier-Palat-Bratt
Mercer-Meier-Holtz
Trenin-McLeod Replacement-Lazar
Hughes-Nemec
DMAN-Marino
Siegs-Miller (and when healthy Hamilton)
Vitek/Daws/Schmid

If a goalie comes up at a reasonable price I'd jump on it tho, but I haven't seen any reasonable prices tbh. Preferably someone younger. If contract negotiations between Swayman and Boston stall out I would give my left kidney to get him

holtz for markstrom is crazy

We gotta make playoffs first!

Our window should be a long…we are probably thinking more about 3-4 years out more than most buyers.

We were youngest team in a decade to reach second round last year. And if we made playoffs this year, we’d still be youngest team in playoffs.

So this group should complete for cup at some point…doesn’t have to be this year.

I've been on the Trenin train a while. Brings elements we don't have really. If Hanifin trade its for long term not a rental. Seems like it's tight but doable salary wise. I say (again) bandaid G until tbe off season, bye VV. A lil more depth. Nate and Bahl can go in trades too. Pretty much inline with Gibb

Also we've been acceptable enough goaltending since the new years.

If it was still the same issues from earlier and the rest of the team was healthy (and Mcleod didn't do a nono) I'd be happy to go all in on a goalie

If our lines were
Jack-Haula-Toffoli
Nico-Palat-Bratt
Mercer-Meier-Holtz
Mcleod-Nosek-Lazar
Siegs-Hamilton
Luke-Marino
Bahl-Nemec

I'd be happy with 11/12 forwards and 5/6 D

and with Foote, Bastian, Nosek, Clarke, Smith all potentially able to be that 4LW that would be more than enough options to trust
and again with Bahl/Hattaka/Smith/Miller, I'd trust one of them to be a solid enough 6th D.

and vitek was playing as bad as he was the first few months of the year still, I'd be all in on buying a goalie.

Without Mcleod gone tho that means a big hole to fill on the forward group, especially defensively and on the PK.
Without Siegs and Hamilton out that is a massive hole to fill on the back end, and on the PK in terms of siegs

I’d take a long look at Saros then. Not like NJ doesn’t have the assets to acquire him & he's only 28.