Ehlers would be totally useless to this team. He is not RHD, not 2C, not big, physical, not playoff beast. In three years, there is like 1% chance he would be a better player than Demidov and Slaf. This would be total waste of money. It is not free because you would waste big chunk of your salary cap to something you dont need.
Investing to Neal Pionk would make way more sense. Same age, UFA, RHD...
I'm not a huge advocate of acquiring Ehlers, specifically, but the point is, coming off his interest in reuniting with his friend Laine, there are options to quickly pimp out the team's offense without ageing the team too much and without sacrificing ANY player or future assets.
Ehlers may not be your favourite player, nor my ultimate acquisition, but he does make his line mates better and adding himtothe fold, while still being able to select more talented players with our draft capital can only make our top nine that much deeper and that much more talented.
As for Pionk that you suggested as another potential UFA acquisition, only on RD, an admittedly more dire need for the Habs, it's an interesting option that would benefit the team for a potential 7-year span, through Pink's 36th birth year.
That's nothing outlandish in terms of age for the smooth skating style of D that isn't very physical and less exposed to wear and tear.
Pionk would make an interesting partner for Guhle, while Reinbacher, at next year's trade deadline, could be paired with Hutson once Matheson gets traded (for another late 1st round pick in 2026) and the Austrian D gets recalled from Laval.
That would provide a physical shutdown pairing partner (Guhle & Reinbacher) for less physical, but more offensively minded D (Pionk & Hutson).
Pionk could quarterback the 2nd PP wave while Hutson runs the offense from the backend on the first wave.
There'd be an offensive touch to most of the time spent at even strength with Hutson and Pionk on different pairings for for around a combined 45 minutes a night.
Ehlers is not a priority need, by any stretch of the imagination and, ultimately, doesn't need to be added to the roster for an immediate improvement to our offense since the D will take some time (Reinbacher, and one of Mailloux or Engstrom) to mature and Demidov, Hage and whomever we selected the 2025 draft, will either not have an immediate impact, or won't be at their best in the short term, anyhow.
I'm happy with adding Pionk now (UFA season), keeping our draft capital for the 2025 draft selections, hopefully with an attempt to move up, and waiting for our forward prospects to fall into place by three years from now:
Demidov - Suzuki - Laine
Caufield - Dach - Slafkovsky
Heineman - Desnoyers/Hage - Hage/Bear
F. Xhekaj - Beck/Kapanen - Davidson/Beck
Guhle - Pionk
Hutson- Reinbacher
Xhekaj - Mailloux/Engstrom
Engstrom/Mailloux
It's all a question how much adding an UFA like Ehlers, Pionk, or some other option would cost, all while trying to add as much talent at as many key positions as we can.
However, with the Cap rumoured to quickly rise to 97M and likely break the 100Mbarrier within five years, as long as Hughes doesn't spend 15M on talented players, rather staying close to the internal Cap with Suzuki's current salary as a barometer, we'll able to add a player like Ehlers or Pionk without any worries and still be able to pay players like Hutson, Demidov and Reinbacher when their 2nd NHL contracts need tote signed.
