I'm totally torn on what I want them to do with Wainwright & Young honestly..
I see both sides. You wanna maximize how many picks & assets we have for 2026-2027 so we don't have to do what we did 2 years ago & trade 4 good - great young players.. You could move Edwards back to C. Barr & Bridgewater would both be in routinely. But I go back to what
@davewheeler said a couple weeks ago that do you really wanna sell season after season? What does that do to all our young players & the fans..?
If you deal those 2 now this team will be starved of veteran leadership next season. You'd be subtracting Filak/Doucette/Surzycia/Wainwright/Young.. They have 3 OAs penciled in for next yr in O'Brien, Wainwright, Young. If you deal 2 of them their veteran core/leadership would be Fischer & O'Brien & that's it... No other OAs as Moses, Johnston, Francechetti aren't OA level. Other than Fischer their current 18s turning 19s are Omeri, Hall, Maillet, Bodin.. First two likely aren't here. Maillet backup goalie. Bodin been dreadful.
They'd have 2 (!) legit veterans who are good. one being their captain who we agree should be dealt next TDL.. No veteran F let alone a good veteran F to help out all these U18 Fs. The team would be bottom of the league for age for the 3rd straight season & they'd have no veterans to eat some of the hard minutes for all these young guys. They'd be taking a beating.
Our lineup next year if we dealt both now would be something like -
Brown-Beamish-Karimov
*Kostuch*-Di Iorio-???
???-Edwards-2025 1st RD pick
Luecke-Chamberlain-Simpson?
Fischer-Barr
Hurt-O'Brien
Bridgewater-Bodin
Andersen
Maillet
???
We sure we wanna watch that? That roster has some fun talent, but my god it lacks good, reliable vets which is what you need in this league & that's with Karimov sticking it out & Kostuch being able to return & play.. Wainwright should be an over point per game OA F & Young is on pace for 55 point season so could he be a 65+ point Dman as an OA? I think so. Both play in every situation & eat a lot of minutes & both have the makeup of guys who will improve.
After really thinking it over I'd rather keep them. I don't want to go back to Sarnia being a basement dweller year after year. All that losing could make guys want out or hurt their confidence & what a way to tank their drastically improved attendance the last 2.5 seasons.
Don't get me wrong if they decide to do it I wont be mad (as long as they get a proper return), but I'd rather wait. They'll have really solid value as OAs too. No, not as good as now, but all these young guys need some veterans to look up to/watch & to eat some of the hard minutes they aren't physically prepared to handle over a full season.