Carolina would bend Dallas over for Pesce. If anything, Carolina is thankful to for dodging a bullet with Marchment; not sure why they would take him on now. Miller out Harley in is a no-brainer, but they are essentially risking rolling into the season with the same question marks on defense as last season, Lundvkist included. They can't afford to take on Karlsson's cap. Suter playing too much is the least of their issues- which happens because their defense sucks mostly and buying him out without someone better lined up to take on those minutes makes it worse.
I would love to eat my words and say the Lundkvist trade didn't suck if not just for the fact that they could have done it this offseason and last seasons results would have been the same. If writing off last season to secure Lundkvist then and accepting he may have growing pains was always the plan he damn well better turn out.
I think the trade looks really bad from the first year perspective. It's possible Lundkvist lives up to being worth a 1st rounder and it's fine, but from the perspective of this year, not great.
They spent a premium pick for a puck moving defenseman, and then decided to use a guy they already had, who looked good in spot starts last year during the regular season, mostly out of desperation. Harley did great considering his situation. What looks even worse is PDB's refusal to play Lundkvist despite the Stars defense badly needing some more transition ability on the back end. Lindell and Hakanpaa got crushed for most of the playoffs, easily the worst 2nd pairing among the final 4. It's crazy they didn't even try Lundkvist with the likes of Hakanpaa, Lindell, Suter, Miller and Hanley being the guys in front of him.
On another topic entirely, I hope the Stars can find a way to re-sign Dadonov. He's exactly the kind of player that does complement what is already there, and maybe because of his age he's actually affordable. I wouldn't touch re-signing Domi with a ten foot pole. He had a nice run here, but I think whatever team gives him his big cash-in deal is going to regret it. He's expensive because he produces really well, but he gives it all back the other way. Great if you're a rebuilding team looking for a way to entertain your fans while your team is bad, not great if you're actually trying to win something long term.
