Probably an exercise in futility, but if there was interest, I wonder if we could get John Tavares to come here on a 2 x $8M deal. Leave Dvorsky in the AHL for another year then have JT tutor him in 2026-2027. You could run a Top 9 next season that would get pretty balanced minutes, something like:
Holloway-Thomas-Kyrou
Buchnevich-Tavares-Bolduc
Neighbours-Schenn-Snuggerud
You would still have Toropchenko, Sundqvist, Walker, and Joseph to round out the 4th line. JT is still a great faceoff man, still has plenty of offensive juice, and I don't think he really hurts you defensively. I'd still rather see us go big game hunting for a guy like Marner, but I think JT would make a great consolation prize on a two-year deal.