I think it's pretty clear what we need to do this offseason, the problem is that it's much easier said than done. The way I see it, the #1 priority this offseason (as others have said) is adding a #1/#2 LHD that can play solid defense. Everything else is secondary.
Here is what I see:
Perron - O'Reilly - Kyrou
Buchnevich - Thomas - Tarasenko
Saad - Schenn - X
X - Joshua - Toropchenko
X - Faulk
Leddy - Parayko
Krug - Bortuzzo
Binnington
X
The forward core does not need a whole lot changed (honestly, the entire team doesn't need much changed). I really like the way we've constructed the top 9 especially. You've got a really good mixture of different playstyles. Each player brings something different to the table. Perron and Tarasenko are elite scorers, O'Reilly and Buchnevich are great two-way players, Kyrou and Thomas have great speed and passing, Schenn isn't elite at anything, but solid at just about everything. He reminds me a lot of Steen in the sense that Steen could play in just about any role you wanted him to. Saad is what he is, but he's a solid depth piece. The whole top 9 showed some really good chemistry this year and I'd hate to disrupt that too much. However, I do believe that Barbashev should be traded. That should be the biggest change we do to the forward group.
I like Barbashev, but I think now is too good of a time to trade him. His value has never been higher, and he's due for a raise at the same time that Thomas, Kyrou, O'Reilly and Tarasenko's contracts are up. Of those players, Barbashev is the clear option to move on from. On top of that, we have Toropchenko who is projecting to be a solid 3rd line option and for much cheaper. So we already have an internal replacement. We've also got Neighbours knocking on the door. So there are cheaper and younger players that can immediately fill in on that 3rd line. It just makes too much sense to get as much as you can in return for Barbashev. You can then turn around and use those newly gained assets to improve your defense.
Husso we just can't afford. We'll need to replace him with a cheaper backup. That's probably the easiest decision. Even just going with Lindgren might be fine. Hate to see him go, but we simply can't keep him while paying Binnington 6M.
Now the defense will be tricky. Krug is the guy that makes everything kinda difficult. I like Krug as a player, but when you take into account contracts, needs, and the playstyles of other defenseman, it's clear that he's a square peg and our defense is a round hole. He could certainly work here, and it's not like his presence makes the team worse, not at all. It's just not efficient. Ideally, Krug is the type of player that you shelter at 5v5 on the 3rd pairing and give lots of PP/offensive zone time to. 6.5 million is way to much money to allocate towards that role. I'd much rather have a player with a similar playstyle that is worse, but costs way less. That guy is Perunovich. That way you could take that extra 4-5 million and put it towards a LHD that greatly improves our team on the defensive side of things. I think this defense looks a lot sexier and more cost-effective, although pretty much impossible right now:
X (6.5m) - Faulk (6.5m)
Leddy (3.5-4m?) - Parayko (6.5m)
Perunovich (1m) - Bortuzzo (950k)
With X being a #2 defensive defenseman.
Unfortunately, I think we're stuck with Krug and his 6.5M cap hit for the foreseeable future. Then there's Scandella who would almost certainly have to be traded in any kind of scenario where we're getting player X (unless Leddy wants to sign elsewhere or he's asking for too much). Regardless, the defense is out of sorts right now, and I think Army knows that. I trust him though, so let's see what he does this off-season. I will say that we have to be trying to win now, so any move that makes us a better team short term without completely clearing our future/prospect cupboard is a good move in my mind. It might sting seeing one of our top prospects go, but it might have to happen.
This is a big offseason for DA.
