If we are staying with Stuart then we should upgrade on Pickard
Pickard and Jeff Skinner out. John Gibson (50% or 75% would be a dream) and Zac Jones in
I wonder if Gibson will finally update his NTC. He has a modified 10 team no trade clause and you have to think that he still has all of the Canadian teams on it. Not that I doubt the player but it's a big adjustment going from playing in sunny California the last 12 years to cold Alberta. Thats the first hurdle. If he actually wants a chance maybe Rico and Perry can convince him.
The second hurdle is the money. He's making 6.4M for the next 2 seasons. I would imagine that Anaheim, all things being equal would like to unload his contract. Dostal appears to be the starter, and they will need some of that money to pay him as a RFA this summer. I just don't see them willing to eat dead cap for the next 2 seasons unless a team is willing to give up enough assets to do so. I would imagine that they would try to waive him before anchoring themselves with dead cap.
The third hurdle is the acquisition cost. Are we willing to pay Anaheim a 1st round pick to eat 3.2M for the next 2 seasons? I'm not sure Gibson is worth that. I guess the only good news here is that Stan Bowman knows that he can in fact squeeze people. So, if Gibson does want out, he might be able to get them to eat some of this money just to get the conversation started. Maybe he can talk them down to Gibson at 50% for a 2nd round pick and a C prospect.
The fourth and final hurdle is next year. We don't have the cap space to have both Gibson (50%) and Skinner. We would need a 3rd team willing to eat money for 2 years, which can't be cheap. Probably another 2nd round pick. to eat 1.6M x 2 years.
I just see too many hurdles to make a deal like this work but maybe that's why Bowman hasn't done anything to this point yet.