If Brady Tkachuk is available, we do whatever it takes to get him. But I don't think he's actually available.
If a Center who is better than Mika is available, we do what it takes to get him. As much as this entire fan base turned on Mika after one round of playoff hockey because they realized he's not Barkov, the man is still in the top half of Centers in the league. To replace him, we have to get someone really, really good. As much as Mika might frustrate you for "only" being just below a point per game in the regular season and "only" playing well in the first two rounds of the playoffs, I promise you that replacing Mika with a cheaper, inferior version who gives you better vibes but can't come close to 80-90 pts and hasn't done a damn thing in any round of the playoffs, is going to frustrate you infinitely more.
This is not exactly a Mitch Marner situation, where we've never seen Mika score in the playoffs or win a round for 5 or 6 years running. He's a very talented, productive, but imperfect player. We are fortunate to have two #1 Centers as our top two, but it sucks to not have someone in that next tier up. I just don't see how or where we get such a player. If you can explain to me how we replace Mika without making a lateral move at best, lemme know.
The more glaring problems we face:
-Immobile d-men who played unstructured hockey. This starts with Trouba, but I think Gustaffson and possibly Lindgren need to go as well. I prob roll with Lindgren another season, and I don't give up on K'Andre Miller just yet because his talent is unreal when he puts it all together. But we 100% need to utilize Trouba's 15 team list and see if there's someone willing to take on a bad contract because they fell in love with his leadership and BIG HITS. Zac Jones is perfect for this lineup with his speed and IQ, at a low cap hit. We should spend the money on a proper third pairing RD to play with Zac, unless we want to move Schneider back down to play with him and sign Brett Pesce for the second pairing.
-No top line wing to play with Zib and Kreider. To me, we should be going to St. Louis to see what it would take to bring back Buchnevich. If not, would it be too early to try Gabe Perreault next to them? If Gabe needs another year or two, we should look into a short term contract for a guy like Tarasenko or someone else to put on the top line until Gabe is ready.
-Adding more speed and grit to the bottom six. Chytil/Othmann/Cuylle on the third line. I'm assuming Kakko is gone for no other reason than he's cheap to replace. I'd rather keep Kakko and move Cuylle to the fourth line with Goodrow and Rempe, or a value signing with better speed than Rempe.
-Igor's contract. We absolutely cannot allocate 15% of our cap to a goaltender. But we also can't lose him. It's not a next year problem, but this is something we need to figure out ASAP.