Yep, most likely issue there. Either we would have to take back an even worse albatross contract (Vinny) or we'd have to eat at least 2 million of of his salary/cap hit. Either way is a non-starter to me.
No shock, had one good season and then became the absolute suck. He's gone full McBain.
I honestly think we need to address that 3rd line most of all right now. I'm OK with Lokti getting an early look at being our full time #3 guy (assuming we retain him, if not then WTF?) but we absolutely need to upgrade our #3 RW more then any other position on our team right now. I like Dwyer but he's a 4th liner. I can see wanting to upgrade our 4th line for sure, but I don't see why we can't roll out McGinn-Nash-Dwyer. Then again part of that is because I absolutely don't want McGinn getting ruined in our craptastic AHL system.
So Dave, you and I are on the same page here. Tlusty will be back so our top 6 is solidified, but our bottom 6 is in total disarray.
I absolutely agree that a 4th line of Nash/Dwyer/whomever-Checker-McSomebody would be fine. That 3rd guy has to be hard nosed though or we get out-muscled and trapped in our own end (unless Nash is on a crash workout plan). The 3rd line is where we've got some work to do. Likely Gerbe, but maybe Tlusty, is the only known on that line. We need a bit of size and toughness to offset Nathan. I've proposed trying to work a deal for Josh Bailey whom I believe would be an outstanding target for us.
Many of the right wings available would be nice, but I'm guessing they are out of our price range. I mean it would be great to pick up one of Vrbata, Setoguchi, Kulemin, or Downie but I think that with Jiri's contract, we'll likely have only a little room (I'm guessing that PK is thinking $65 - $66 million as our budget). These guys are likely going to command $3+ million or a shade less.
So I think we're going to be stuck bargain basement shopping. I see a couple of options that might be interesting. First, I'd like to see if we could somehow wrangle a Devin Setoguchi...he'd be my first choice. After him, I'd be more inclined to see if we could pull a bit of a reclamation project like Jack Skille or hope that a David Moss could stay healthy. The problem with all of this speculation, given that the UFA market is a bit slender here, is that we really need the 3C just as bad.
Other than Ott or Goc, I just don't see anybody really out there for us. I'm not sold on Loktionov at all especially coming off of shoulder surgery. I'd likely qualify him and put him on LTIR, but we really are hamstrung with our budget unless we want Riley Nash as our 3C.
That's why my gut tells me there's some sort of trade coming...and I don't know who that trade would be with or what it would be for, but our bottom six remain a serious question mark and we definitely need a Bellemore replacement.
Color me confused right now....
