Coming from a guy who's been on the Staz train for years, no thanks. I think that ship has sailed and he doesn't fit the style of Bednar at all.
Also lol on people wanting Toews @50% all of a sudden. I was roasted for suggesting it a few months ago. This was before Chicago went all kamikaze though. I think it makes sense it's at the deadline at this point. I'm wondering how he would fit in the locker room, but I think he'd be rejuvenated, and shouldn't cost too much. I still think we have a shot at one of the big fish out there though
Who's calling for Toews at 50%? I've been
on trying to get Patrick Kane at 50% using Newhook as the main piece in spurts over the last few months. Capt. Serious, even at 50% isn't an upgrade on rolling with JTC/Meyers/Newhook/Rants and waiting for a Bo Horvat like thing in season. Gotta hope JTC plays a part in that trade if it happens because we ain't got much else at this point having used Newhook and whatever else it takes to get Kane. Basically Toews just isn't a good fit, especially for my dreams. *LOL*
Anyways, baring a trade/signing of a 2C, this is kinda what I would like to see to begin the season.
1. Trade Newhook + for Patrick Kane @ 50%
2. Role with JTC/Meyers at 2C to start and work on a trade in season for Bo Horvat reduced involving (hopefully JTC and picks) Rants and Landy could always spot duty at 2C during the interim as well.
3. Patrick Kane pushes Lehks back to the 3rd line. That means we have that defensive pain in the ass on the wings for all 4 lines. Does it get deeper and tougher than Landy-Nuke-Lehks-Cogs?
4. Sign a 3rd RW/C - Got to get help here one way or another as I don't think LOC has proven to be able to keep the energy up with these minutes over the course of the season to be counted on to start here on the RW.
5. By the trade deadline, trade for an additional 3rd line winger if we trade JTC or anyone in a move involving a 2nd line C. We'll want insurance for win/in case we need to move Lehks up to the 2nd line in the playoffs due to injuries.
- Landy-Mack-Kane
- Nuke-JTC/Meyers-Rants
- Lehk-Meyers/JTC/UFA-JTC/UFA
- Cogs-Helm-LOC
- MacDermid
- If injuries take out more than one of our bottom six
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- Sedlak/Maltsev - if we are lucky
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- Toews-Makar
- Girard-Manson
- Byram-EJ (this third pairing is going to get a lot more minutes than a normal 3rd and/or Byram will be giving others a breather a bunch throughout games)
- MacDermid
- Callups should be MacDonald? England/Hunt? I'm not sure are guys like Zhuravlyov, Leivermann, Clurman, Jacobs actually good enough to be a better call up than MacDonald, England or Hunt? I would think Behens would be a bit green this season even if he signs and plays in the AHL right?
- King George
- Frank Sinatra
- Seriously, I consider Pavel a true top-quality backup. That being said, I don't really view him as a 1B if you know what I mean. That being the case, when was the last time a Stanley Cup champion received/needed as many wins from their backup as we got. I'm sure the list is much larger than what I am thinking but the few that I can think of really seem to be a case of a changing of guards where your backup has really outgrown the role and was ready to either take over anyways or was forcing a trade basically due to having two #1s.
Sorry for the extremely long post. If you made it this far give yourself a cookie...or better yet a brownie and feel free to respond, I'd actually love to hear constructive criticism of my idea (as well as the inevitable realists telling me while it'll never happen in a million years).
Oh, also, in case you sneaked down to the end of the post before committing to reading...he's some mood music:
