I like Henrique too.
I want to believe in vilardi as a centre. He’s just sooooo slow. Not sure he’ll be a good fit unless the molasses miraculously drops from his skates.
You said it well. Putting Vilardi at center isn't based on anything other than need. Same with Perfetti. At least for this year anyway.
Gabe's biggest strengths are drawing guys into board battles he can win often and his work within 10 ft of the net.
I can see 25 year old Perfetti being able to do it once he has much more experience and has that man strength that comes with age.
We need someone who can play in the middle and be trustworthy to throw out against McDavid, McKinnon, Robertson, Kopitar, etc.
I get why many prefer a longer term fix. Our team is in a good position cap wise compared to most. But the second we lock up a 7-8 million dollar player there, we need to get rid of two guys making 4 million.
Giving up a 1st and a prospect for 20 games with no guarantee of success for a guy like Lindholm could end up looking like a huge waste of a pick like Hayes did.
But if we are giving up even more for a long term 2C, and having to pay that guy... well if it means (1) losing a defenseman and (2) a glue guy like Iafallo on top of the increased return for a 2C with term... is that actually better than losing the 1st?
If it costs:
-a 1st and Lambert and another pick
-plus we can't keep Dillon
-plus we have to deal Iafallo or Appleton + Namestnikov/Barron
We are locking up a key position. But we are essentially giving up four or five useful pieces for one?
Isn't that exactly what we gained from the PLD trade?
At least with a pure rental deal, we just suck up dealing a 1st, we shoot our shot.
And that's the cost. It doesn't affect anything next year or beyond cap wise.
Long winded so my apologies. But that's why I feel a rental makes more sense for this team and it's window, and it's cap structure moving forward. Namestnikov, Perfetti, Lambert, McGroarty are all internal options the team can look at next year and beyond.
