So they want to rebuild and be competitive, sort of what other teams do to refresh a roster with youth and picks but still be competitive. Dubas and Sullivan sat down and hammered out a plan.
The plan? Make it so zero youth have a shot at any spots in the line up except for St Ivany based on need and even then even he won't.
So the entire roster is entirely veteran heavy again. Lol...
There are still slots in the lineup for youth. The only recent additions that I feel have a much better chance at being staples in the lineup are Lizotte and Hayes. Everyone else that was signed to a 1yr deal could be sent to WBS including Beauvillier, Puljujarvi, Bemstrom, and Nieto. I don't think they would shy away from waiving Acciari if it comes to it either.
But now let's also be realistic for a second. Yes, Dubas said they want to infuse youth into the lineup but that doesn't necessarily mean "put all youth into the line up this season with no plan B". If Pono comes in a gets buried every game...what do you do? To expect:
DOC-Sid-Rust
Bunt-Geno-Raks
Poulin-Pono-Puustinen
Koivunen-Yager-Broz
or something is hardly a realistic expectation. As is, they have a couple of slots for youth to win in camp. Then, and a I know this is foreign to some, but you can indeed call guys up from WBS. Whether that be "hey, Beauvillier sucks, let's get Pono up here" or "Damn, Rakell is hurt, Broz is playing well, get him up here". It's a long season and things happen - waives, trades, injuries, scratches...there's plenty of time to assess the youth we have. And I don't think the goal was the necessary bank on youth this season, I think this is a transitionary season with lower expectations. Then in 2-3 years, get the youth in and go for it again.