Petes fans also have PTSD from the darker times a few years back and think they need to sign every decent player who is willing to come here as early as possible. He may not have signed because they always planned on bringing in another defenseman, and they haven't put a contract in front of him yet.
The pending trade for a veteran defenseman would seem to be another step in balancing the development of the young core vs making sure that core doesn't get crushed every night.
They're obviously not going to be a contending team but if the plan is a top 9 forward group of Melee, Lefebvre, McIntyre, McCallum, Taylor, Page, Young, Addy and Fitzgerald and a top 4 D of Carson, Matejicek, Strohack, Jenken? and in this scenario, Bowen in net, they can stick around in some games at least.
And that still leaves development space for Ladds, Gowan, Cadorin, Turcotte, Partridge, Ula, if he comes etc... but there's a base here of guys who can hang in the OHL.