Someone has been reading these boards...
View attachment 888448
For most front offices around the league, this would be cut and dried.
nypost.com
Logically it is the best course of action simply because we wouldn't have to attach assets to move him or Palmieri and get cap space in the process.
Obviously, you wouldn't want to move him AND PAGEAU; so our 3rd line center would stay and you would "likely" focus on wings instead.
But let me ask fans here this question:
What do you think you could get in return for Brock Nelson (37G per 82 last three seasons) and Kyle Palmieri, who is coming off 30 goals of his own??
I think you "could" get a minimum of three high picks (1st/2nd round) or young high end prospects and of course you would gain $11 million in cap space.
You would still have Horvat, Barzal, Pageau and Cizikas down the middle- so your center depth would still be ok, especially with us locking up MacLean as well and you would still have Lee, Engvall and Holmstrom as your wing guys somewhere.
Yes, one of them is probably remaining in your top 6 (likely Lee) but man would you have some assets now to get your wings.
Just hypothetically, you could tender Simon and trade Wahlstrom for a similar young underperformer- a "change of scenery" type player making less than a million. I chose Kaliyev- and he like Holmstrom doesnt have arbitration rights and gets the QO, perhaps a little more but definitely under a million. Lastly, say you get your third line LD for a cool 1.5 million, likely Reilly but whomever and then also a minimum guy to push Bolduc out as your #7.
That (in all likelihood) would have you at around $73-74 million with
19 players and $14-15 million in cap space still.
Your forwards would be Barzal, Horvat, Lee, JGP, Engvall, Cizikas, Holmstrom and MacLean for sure holding 8 spots with (in this example) Kaliyev, Tsyplakov, Fasching and a likely third* option (more about that below) battling for 2 more spots for a total of
10.
Your defense doesn't get an upgrade (yet) but returns Dobson, Pelech, Pulock, Romanov, Mayfield, Reilly and a minimum guy for a total of
7 and of course your
2 goalies in Sorokin and Varlamov.
Now you are sitting there with
14 million and assets galore. Likely
MINIMUM two first round picks and three second round picks at your disposal. You very well could have gotten a young prospect looking to become an NHL regular with the Brock/Kyle trades as well*.
Yes, you will still need 3 wings and they need to be top 6 guys, but my God do you have options galore. Endless options for 2024 and your prospect pool (and future) just improved by leaps and bounds in the process. And ya, you probably can replace those 67 goals lost fairly easily...
See now why trading those two is the way to go?
Unfortunately, Lou simply cant think this far ahead and is depressingly loyal to a fault
