Can't agree with this. You see Suzuki put his body on the line and drag this team to within inches of a playoff spot, players are playing through injury, youngsters are playing better than they have before (Struble, notably) -- what kind of message does it send when the organization doesn't reinforce a clear need and sits on its hands?
And expectations will be higher next season... Your solution is to put Dvorak in a 2C role?? What is Suzuki meant to think?
It's like giving a guy a promotion and more responsibilities without giving him a raise or even a better office.
The market for centremen will never shift. Unless there's a sudden cap crunch, every buying team without any exception will be 'over-paying' at the trade market for signed top6 NHL talent or they'll be over-paying FAs to shore up their top6 that way. Bergevin was wrong for thinking the prices would ever come down.
in summary: 2C is a need and we have the assets and cap space to address it.
Exactly.
It will cost to get something of value as a 2C, especially if we are looking for aYOUNG 2C that is not a project like Dach was and Newhook still is without much success in the role of 2C (better as a 3C to be confirmed).
Fans need to stop expecting that our GM will fleece some other GM to get this done.
Young, established Cs are hard to get, but only without sacrificing something established in return.
Would you've up Guhle + in return of a young, established C, for example?
Would you give a lesser Unicorn LHD than Guhle, a present potential lesser stop-gap 2C, a strong prospect for that position later on and a 3c in exchange; Evans, Xhekaj, Newhook and Hage?
Would you settle on a 28, 29, or 30 yr-old veteran C for 5-7 years, even if it meant including from our 1st round picks this year (maybe both) and/or Hage, plus Xhekaj, for example?
It will hurt somehow, count on it, because every GM knows that Hughes is looking for a 2C and Hughes already acknowledged this by stating that he is ready to overpay for the right player.
