I had Monahan penciled in as the 3C Center before spending the money on Bunting but his injury history is scary, we can't really afford our 3C to only be playing 30 games, I can see Bunting not even being a option coming back, it's a decent amount of investment in the both of them but I feel way more comfortable spending the money on Bert, he's put 60 points on a not so good Detroit team.
I'd love to be able to move JT to the wing and find a 2nd line center ideally, but like I said before, free agency is scary to try to get a 3C/4C, yet alone a 2C. ROR is probably the best centerman there, but at 32 and to get him, you'll probably have to give him 3x5m and he's already not the best skater.
Look at it this way though... The guy will probably take anything he can get on a one year deal. It won't be league minimum, but I can't see it being more than 2.5-3 mill either.
Let's say we sign Monahan, Acciari, and Nosek/Eller for the 4th line. Healthy lineup would be something like this:
Knies - Matthews - Marner
Jarnkrok - Tavares - Nylander
Robertson - Monahan - UFA
Lafferty - Nosek/Eller - Acciari
McMann + Holmberg/Steeves/Abruzzese/etc. on the Marlies.
Worst case is that Monahan and Robertson both get injured. Acciari probably moves to center, Holmberg takes his spot on the 4th line with Lafferty and Nosek/Eller, and then Robertson is replaced by Steeves, Abruzzese, or McMann. Pretty much what you had originally anyways except no Bunting (we could afford to still bring Bertuzzi if we wanted). Unless we dump Muzzin, we are probably in LTIR all year next year anyways so cap-wise that doesn't matter. The only thing would be opportunity cost lost, and TBH, I would rather take a chance on Monahan at 2.5-3 mill vs what you would get otherwise... Which is going to be what? If we give term, we may get Haula at that but I imagine he is going to have a lot better options given the weak market. Rodrigues is the same. The rest are either 4C's like Nosek/Eller, over the hill veterans who should probably retire at this point, and Nick Bjugstad, who is hardly a more attractive option than just using one of our prospects.
The wing is not looking much better either. Miles Wood and Jonathan Drouin is hardly any less injury prone than Monahan, and they are by far the best options in that money range on the wings too. The rest are like Namestnikov-quality, or should be getting fairly nice deals with term and a good amount of cap dollars and I am not sure we should be giving either to anyone who is not earmarked for our top 6... Especially if we are planning on getting a bigger fish to fill that one UFA spot as it is.
Monahan is a huge swing, but if he hits, he is the steal of a fairly weak UFA crop for what could use to put us over the top and he is someone who could put us over the top. The rest are likely very expensive in both term and dollars, and in this market, I would rather place my bets on defense than up front.
