Not advocating for this at all... But I would say this is maybe the one scenario where bringing in Ritchie as the 3C has a small chance of working out.
Two trades were as follows:
- Colton to New Jersey for 2024 3rd(NJD) + 2025 2nd(WPG). Basically trading Colton for pick #75 this year and pick roughly pick #50 next year.
- 2024 1st(COL) to Washington for Dowd(50% retained) + 2024 2nd(VGK). So trading down from #24 to #52 to get a high end 4C.
For the bottom 6, you stick two hard working, responsible two way guys on Ritchie's wing in Landy and LOC. Dowd gives you a really good 4C, and a guy that has the ability to play up the lineup if Ritchie really struggles. You dont want Dowd as your 3C in the playoffs, but during the regular season he'd be able to handle the role for a decent stretch if Ritchie cant do it(Obviously would then mean needing to make a trade for a 3C at the deadline which wouldn't be cheap).
A couple additional notes. This plan would allow Nichushkin to return to the team in November. Something I feel has an incredibly low(Arguably 0%) chance of happening, but it would work cap wise. He'd come back with a cap hit of about $5.1M so they'd actually have more like $2.5M in cap space rather then $1.4M This would allow them to grab a 5-6D for $1.5M and run with a 13th forward for league minimum.
The more likely route would be to simply spend Nukes money in the summer and terminate as soon as he's out of the program.