Im a bit floored when people suggest Oshawa isn’t the favourite in the East. I see people putting Brampton and Hamilton ahead.
The generals provided Barlow trade goes through will have four nhl 1st round draft picks on the team in all likelihood, arguably the best goalie in the league and host of other good solid players.
Let’s look at it logically.
Oshawa will start the season without Ritchie until he (hopefully) returns from Colorado. Do you recall how they struggled last year when Ritchie was out with his injury for the first two months?
And they’ll be without Sennecke until mid November with his injury. That’s two massive holes in their lineup.
Dealing Bedkowski significantly weakens the defense, specifically the bottom pairing. And the bottom six forwards need some upgrading be you can’t just roll two lines with an occasional shift to a patchwork third line during a long playoff run.
Brampton is currently a very good team and they have an unbelievable amount of assets to acquire even more upgrades. EIGHT (8) second round picks and FIVE (5) third round picks is enough to add at least two elite players and possibly three.
An overlooked fact is that Brampton also has room to add at least one elite level OA - - possibly two if Leskovar moves on to the AHL.
It’s significantly cheaper to acquire a top level OA than it is to acquire a similarly talented 19yr old.