I am with you on Sawyer. There's too much talent there to not see where he goes this year. He is expendable but not until you know more about how the team will fair in the conference. I am a NBB fan but I expect the 67's to be a serious threat this year. They play a solid structured game, work extremely hard and have enough talent to be a factor. You have said, add a top line player preferably a 20 year old centreman and 20 year old dman then the barber-poles should not be taken lightly that's for sure. Still to young to go for it but winning a playoff round isn't out of the question.
To be clear or maybe more precise, I think if they added a viable OA Centre that can play top two lines in an effort to stretch out their lines, I think that is enough to get in the mix. They’d probably still be a step behind the bonafide contenders.
I “think” they need an upgrade on Costantini if they want to be with the contenders. I like Costantini. I think he brings value to this team. But, they are missing that element of PP QB. I think that element would be ridiculously costly unless it is an OA. That means the most viable option is through an upgrade for Costantini.
Those two pieces, in my opinion, puts them with the company of Peterborough, Barrie, North Bay and Mississauga. Neither of those two pieces would be overly costly. We would get a return for Costantini and with some of the extra D-Men, we could get some pieces to use there too.
However, none of the above teams have made any moves. At least two of them will make moves. One probably makes significant moves In an effort to separate themselves from the pack. Is Ottawa then willing to keep pace after adding two pieces of their own already? THAT is the question. If it takes them two trades to be part of the cool kids group then how far are they willing to go to stay with them?
So, is this the right year? Probably not. But with Barlas not showing well and Moldenhauer not reporting and subsequently traded, we are short two 1st rounders that would be 18 and 19 next year and should have been a significant part of any run we’d likely have had next year. So, do they trade and skip next year too? Either way, I don’t see next year as a viable year so they can make a run this year and trade an asset or two next year to recoup what they traded away this year. That is sort of my thought process on this. They would get some solid experience contending this season that the younger players can take with them which is a huge part of development.
No matter what, out of the ten D-Men they have signed, 8 are eligible to return (two would be OA’s). They can afford to trade two D-Men (provided one is an ‘02 or ‘03) and not significantly impact the blueline next year. Let’s start there and see where it leads us.
