Dont' worry, we aren't done yet
patiently awaiting the Clarke, Kaliyev, and 2025 1st for William Nylander deal
Money in money out at this point. Got to send a cap dump back like Doughty.
PL: He's a wing. Run the give & go with Byfield in neutral zone & have him use his size to crash the net. 55 moving to center anyways. Maybe 8 million would be better down the middle, but Blake didn't do his due diligence.
Instead he was dumped for a $5.25 million goalie that lost his starting position.
The cap savings was spent on Blake's idea of upgrades. The situation was actually made worse.
The way through this without a full rebuild was to grab another name or two before the wheels fell off. Bringing in a center 2C before Kopi ages out. You have to keep perception up to get players to sign. Now, the team looks like a joke because of how the PL situation was handled. This is the same as Kovalchuck. No longer a one off. Capped out with grinders & toughness.
Getting the PP working was the easiest path to the playoffs & keeping up appearances of being a winner & fun place to play. Clarke, Fiala, Kempe, didn't need that much more.
Now Blake is all in on toughness, rookie head coach &, ironically, the kids bailing him out.
It will be fun to see someone rough up the other Pacific teams at least.