Yes, a Kadri re-sign would have been problematic on its own, obviously no one expected him to repeat his stellar career year and that deal would've aged like milk left outside. It just irritates me to no end that there was no Plan B whatsoever. They just threw up their hands and said "Eh, we'll just go with center-by-committee (again) and figure it out at the deadline," which of course they didn't.
And I don't believe for a second that the Avs truly believed Newhook would evolve into a viable #2 center. At least the coaches had to have known at that point. If management didn't, then they were either deluding themselves or are even worse at talent evaluation than I feared.
It's just stupid to me that the team won a Cup and followed up their title defense by failing to shore up the very weakness that, when addressed, directly led to their first championship in over 20 years.
Again, getting Manson was a great idea. Keeping him was not.