Mucking about with various line combos, to me it seems clear they should shed Carter to make room on the roster. Not sure who would take him or what LA could get for him at this point.
Hagelin or Thompson are gone but seems like one of Carter/Lewis/Toffoli need to move if Kupari/JAD/Luff/Wagner/Vilardi/19 pick are looking to make the team.
Luff and Wagner are already on the team. They barely play, but that's a coach's decision. Guys like Leipsic and Brodzinski aren't guaranteed to be around. Brodzinski will be 26 in June, and hasn't done anything, even before the injury. Leipsic has been traded a couple times, picked up on waivers a couple times, been on 4 different teams in 4 years. You don't shed Carter. He's 34 with 3 years left, and will in all likelihood have his worst season in the NHL. He's not as easy asset to get rid of. Kupari and the unknown 19 pick are teenagers. JAD is barely not a teenager. Vilardi is who knows. If any of those guys make the team, you can make room for them. I don't know if you make room for them before they make the team though.
If I were Blake, I would try to trade Kopitar. Maybe send him to Colorado for Ottawa’s first and Jost
You're just torturing yourself. No reason to think Kopitar will choose to leave his nice life, and certainly not for what might be the #1 overall pick. Even if it fell to 4th, what 30+ year old gets the 4th overall pick? Plus another 20 year old player on top of that? None of them. Wouldn't get that even if 50% were retained on Kopitar, and that's assuming he would want to put himself in a position to try to win again.
Mitchell had never won and the Kings had to go the Kovalchuk route (extra year on the deal) to get him as he was considered damaged goods.
Paid a steep price for Richards. Paid what appeared to be a significant price for Williams who was also considered damaged goods.
Point being is this: Lombardi put himself in a position to be able to acquire these type of guys to augment the more talented players he already had in Kopitar and Doughty, plus he had to be opportunistic and take a leap of faith every once in awhile. This is part of the whole tank and acquire assets philosophy. You need to hit on picks but you also just need to have cap space and attractive assets to jump on someone else's good draft pick that they've developed.
Many of us did not think 11/8/23 had what it takes to lead a team to a Cup. I think Lombardi kind of thought that as well, hence the Richards trade. Some on here claim they would have won anyways with Simmonds/Schenn but what I know for sure is that they went Cup/WCF/Cup in the three seasons that the guy was valuable. What we also know is that 11/8/23 have only won one playoff game since losing these heart and soul guys.
Roster hasn't been as strong so I don't want to completely throw them under the bus, but the idea here is that they would be those heart and soul guys moving forward. If they aren't being traded, hopefully they can be those guys for a new crop of talent in three years while there is cap space and assets available to go out and get whatever else is necessary.
Another alternate history scenario, what happens if Kopitar doesn't get hurt before the 2011 playoffs? They had a decent Kopitar-less effort against the Sharks. Lost 3 games in OT. Had Kopitar been healthy, and they manage to win that series somehow, do they go all in for Richards? Without Kopitar, it was clear as day that the team didn't have enough down the middle. If he was healthy, and they get to the 2nd round, is Lombardi a little more patient? Especially since he was going to have to trade Smyth for basically nothing? I know they got Fraser, and he ended up playing a decent role, but 23 goals were traded for 3.
Didn't some goon get a 1st too a few years back?
And people were surprised by it. I guess people can hope other GMs are dumb, but don't expect it in any given trade. Be happy if it happens, but with trade speculation as a fan, whatever you want from the other team, decrease the talent coming back it a little bit(or a lot in some cases), and that's probably closer to what you could get.
