Good post David. I'm unsure who they would have targeted, here's who I would have taken more than just a cursory glance, i.e. due diligence on because they've stood out to me:
- Montour, Martinez, Roy, Zaddy, Skjei($$$?), Grzelcyk, Dillon, Ghostbear, Brodie, Beam, Brannstrom (lol)
- Toffoli, Marchessault ($$$?), Duhaime, Arvidsson, Skinner, Sherwood (CALL MADE), Heinen (ironically), Lindholm, Barre-Boulet, Noesen, Lomberg, Wennberg, Aston-Reese, Girgensons
Do your due diligence, identify what traits your system demands, what areas your system could be weak, trust your scouting department that you've hired personally to give you the information you need to make a decision and treat these players like what they are but you can never tell them this - they are stocks. Which ones are going up, down, where is their value headed, do a background comprehensively.
Make your bid on the price point you can, then we can discuss negotiation tactics further but I'd have to know more about the inner workings of the show because part of the reason free agency is so crazy is because 32 NHL GMs have plans for their teams and are desparetely trying to secure those plans. Some teams have higher tolerancy for overbidding than others.
($$$?) - My highest offer would have been outbid.
I'm an eye test guy and there are 1200 NHL games each year. There isn't a human being alive who can watch all those games and have a healthy life. You do have to rely on advanced stats to some extent.