Avs will be in a tight cap constraint and they will most likely get rid of their current goaltending situation with how poor it has been in the playoffs. If they lose in the first round they will definitely be looking to make a change in net.

Strome is a 60-70 point center in his prime setting up Ovechkin, Zegras put up 60+ in his rookie and sophomore seasons on what anyone could consider rather bad teams, and he just turned 23 last month. Claiming that Z is only a 60-70 point center when that's what he was able to do his first two years in the league is intellectually dishonest, there's still plenty of upside to unfold.

I will never, ever understand why guys will trade for a player that they themselves define as a #1C and then say that they wouldn't trade an unsigned prospect for him, but two kids with modest NHL experience characterized as "promising" are sufficient. Ever.

They must be thrilled that they got the next Connor Bedard at 8 overall. I guess we should have taken him instead of Leo.

Making a change in net might very well happen but thinking Kuemper and a third nets a top 4 dman is a massive joke, you didn’t think that one through at all. They let Kuemper walk a year ago but somehow they are now going to take him back after his play has suffered to the point of being pushed to the back up role and to do so give up a 25yr old top 4 dman. Bro that’s just silly.

Strome is a 60-70 point center in his prime setting up Ovechkin, Zegras put up 60+ in his rookie and sophomore seasons on what anyone could consider rather bad teams, and he just turned 23 last month. Claiming that Z is only a 60-70 point center when that's what he was able to do his first two years in the league is intellectually dishonest, there's still plenty of upside to unfold.

Honestly the caps should take a filer on Wahlstrom. Kid needs a change in scenery and he will be great. But yeah the rest is a shot in the dark

What would you compare Zegras to? I want to gauge what the thought is for his Prime. I am thinking spitting image of Kuznetsov. I want to understand where you think he will be in terms of career success

Again, I'm not trying to directly compare the two here. I'm well aware of their ages, who they play with, all that jazz. But that's how I would view it because frankly, I wouldn't want to come close to giving up the value that would be needed to trade for Zegras. Amazing player, but he's not worth mortgaging the future of a franchise for. And that's what Leonard is at the moment.

Sidenote, Strome really mostly played with Ovi on the PP this season, which was awful. Ovi's center this year for a majority of the time was McMichael. Stromer bounced around between the middle six wingers for a majority of the year and actually really showed that he can drive play on his own, which was a pleasant surprise. Didn't see much of that last season.

Again, I'm not trying to directly compare the two here. I'm well aware of their ages, who they play with, all that jazz. But that's how I would view it because frankly, I wouldn't want to come close to giving up the value that would be needed to trade for Zegras. Amazing player, but he's not worth mortgaging the future of a franchise for. And that's what Leonard is at the moment.

Sidenote, Strome really mostly played with Ovi on the PP this season, which was awful. Ovi's center this year for a majority of the time was McMichael. Stromer bounced around between the middle six wingers for a majority of the year and actually really showed that he can drive play on his own, which was a pleasant surprise. Didn't see much of that last season.

There's a flyers fan named SpiderSpiderSpider28 who did a great deep dive into Zegras' first two seasons in the league and who his trajectory is comparable with linked Here (Many thanks to Spider for putting this together)

With some context in place, is Zegras ever going to eclipse the players on that list? No, likely not, but he can have similar careers to some of them, such as Point, Larkin, and maybe Aho. Point has had the benefit of playing on largely very good teams with tons of star talent, Larkin has suffered through a long drought in Detroit, and Aho has also been on largely good teams. There's no reason to believe Zegras won't become a PPG top 6 play driver through his peak. He's never going to win a Selkie, but he's patched up a lot of the holes in his defensive game this season. A player he could end up a lot like us Artemi Panarin. Yeah, Panarins rookie numbers were better, but he also entered the league at 24 years old and stepped right onto a Blackhawks team that had just established itself as a dynasty at the time. If Zegras was playing with prime Kane and Toews, could he put up 70+ pts? Yeah, I'd say he would.

I figured the worst case scenario is he's Phil Kessel, not the kind of player you build your team around, but the kind of elite complimentary player that those core players need to really elevate their game. (Guess you could level similar accusations at Panarin)

And as far as his importance to team scoring goes, the Ducks scored less goals this season than we did last season, despite having Vatrano go wild with 37 goals, as well as adding Leo Carlson, Pavel Mintyukov, Olen Zellweger, and Alex Killorn to the roster this year. Zegras' absence was hugely noticed this season, he's one of the main drivers of our offense.

So we've got a 23 year old forward who has elite talent, who generates a ton of offense on a team that massively struggles on it without him, and we have a spot for him in our top 6 to probably play with McTavish and Terry next season.

Well again the Cap issue is the only way I see something like this happening. Its not his value but the fact that the Avs will need to move someone out. His value is absolutely higher than what I am showing but I am also focusing on the fact that someone will be forced out of Denver and I cannot see them trading Manson, Colton or any of the other big name roster players that are locked up

So would you consider him your future star over guys like Carlsson and McTavish? I feel like both of those guys are on his level and if not better. (Carlsson it may be too soon to tell but he seems to be legit) I am interested to see who gets priced out in the future because you will end up have a ton of players making over league average and probably will end up in a position much like the leafs how they are soaking so much money into 5 guys

I would counter with our GM isn't an idiot who is going to walk guys to free agency and hand out trade protection, but only time will tell on that. As far as the players, they all bring something different. Verbeek has commented that he wants Carlson and Gauthier to play on the PK next season to make the opposing teams risk adverse for fear of a short handed goal. McTavish has that dog in him and the "follow me" factor, he's probably the next captain, though he's got some time before he's ready. Leo is probably out 1C going forward, and while he was 6'3" while drafted, he's reportedly still growing and should end up around 6'6". That size, vision, it'll be like having a Getzlaf that can actually skate. We've got a bright future ahead, and we can worry about paying guys when their contracts come due.

However if Verbeek was actually interested in moving Zegras, last off-season was the time to do it coming off back to back 60 point seasons.

I agree with what you are saying there.

His value could come back up past that again, But it all depends on him and his work ethic going forward. I don't really follow the ducks so I don't know what his work ethic is like but I have heard some pretty shady stories (all from media so I dont know if they are true) that made it sound like hockey wasn't his main priority for a period of the beginning of this past season

I really don't know why the sudden switch from golden child to public enemy number 1 in the media seemingly overnight, my only assumption is that now that Bedard exists he's the media darling, but I would have figured that just lessened the spotlight, not turned him into a lepper. The Seattle broadcast was particularly disgusting when he broke the camera in the penalty box, like he was the first guy who ever did that. The double standard he's being treated with these days is puzzling to be sure.

The end of the day, it was a lost season for him, but when he was on the ice, he towed the line, he worked on his defensive side of the game, he got his coaches praise, and the love of his team mates. He'll be a Duck next season unless we get an offer we can't refuse, and I think he's going to put up over 70 points next season and have a relatively flat +- on the season.