Joined: Sep. 2018
Posts: 2,150
Likes: 1,841
Love the Florida trade, I like the Vegas and Colorado trades. I'd do the Arizona trade in an instant, which means there's almost no chance Arizona takes it. Cooley almost certainly would be untouchable, but I'd be curious to see what Arizona fans think Columbus needs to add to make it happen.
The top-6 is ideal. The top-9 would be ideal if Texier took that next step. The entire forward group would be ideal if we added a Garland-type to the 3RW instead (Brindley?), bumped Texier down to the 4th line, and scratched Mathieu.
There's plenty of cap space there for the RFAs going into next season, and if Columbus finds a taker for Elvis, I'd be fine with Greaves-Knight for a year and hope one of them can take the reigns going forward. Sign another 3LD in the offseason that can take 2LD minutes if Provorov is moved and until Mateychuk is ready, maybe sign another vet winger for that 3RW slot, let Jiricek get some NHL seasoning, and this team could be a contender in 2025-26 assuming Jiricek, Mateychuk, Greaves/Knight, Chinakhov, Cooley, Fantilli, Johnson, and Voronkov all hit their expected development floors by then (and a few can be nearing their ceiling).