I get that Zegras is a very interesting target for us, I really do. He plays a skilled, puck-dominant type of game where his very nice tools allow him to beat defenders one-on-one for a chance or score nice goals on the rush.
Stylistically, Zegras' type of game would mesh well with a guy like Dach, whose physical and more well-rounded play as a center would benefit from Z's great playmaking and good speed.
Hughes has hinted at targetting a (loosely paraphrasing him here, don't quote me) "young, talented, but also already somewhat-proven player", which to me means that he might be willing to pay more than people expect as players of that ilk would cost a LOT to acquire in trade if they're still young to boot.
I personally think our 1st in this year's draft (provided we don't luck-out and win a top-3 spot in the lottery) would surely be in play for the kind of player Hughes seems to be targetting, alongside more assets even in a package for the "right" player.
Taking a fast, cursory look around the league for those types of "young and talented, also reasonably-established forwards", there are actually a certain quantity of other young-ish players besides Zegras that could potentially be had in trade if we pony-up good assets/packages.
And of those, I personally really like Martin Necas as a possible trade target alongside Zegras.
I just think Necas would be a great fit for our team. Necas is, fast, talented, smart, good in transition and on the forecheck, isn't a soft player, normally plays hard, and just seems to be a consummate professional out there.
I personally think Necas would be great as a right-winger on Dach's line; giving it yet more speed, skill, and a little bit of size too. Necas also only just turned 25 in January, so his age would fit in great with that of the rest of our core.
And the reason why I think he might be available is that while Necas has been playing incredibly well since late December and he's been producing very well from that point on, he also clashed a bit with Brind'Amour at training camp and at the start of the season.
The Hurricanes' coaching staff's tweaked the teams' schemes/systems during the offseason, and Necas had trouble adapting early on while also being singled-out by Brind'Amour for not playing the best defense.
And that factor, coupled with the Hurricanes also being a bit tight in salary cap-space given the quantity of departing players they'd need to sign to raises (Teravainen, Jarvis, Pesce, Skjei, Necas, alongside at least 6-8 other skaters for $35M) might mean that the Canes' front office would be open to trading Necas for a big haul and then putting the money that would've been used-up by his raise elsewhere to better help sustain success for their team.
Incidentally, there have also been some hazy rumors suggesting we'd be looking at a guy like Mittelstadt. But I think that they hold little ground, and that Buffalo will sign him and trade someone else instead to clear their forward logjam, like say, Jack Quinn, who has had trouble staying healthy the last two/three years.
So yeah, that's it from me. Have a nice morning/afternoon/evening/night, and cheers.
