Moving Reimer/Franson/Gardiner does what exactly? We have a core problem with this team ie. Phaneuf, Kadri, Lupul, Kessel. Something is wrong with this team. Cutting off your nose despite your face does nothing for this team. We need big changes. not small ones.
is kadri part of the core? he just played the full season this year.
the core over the last several years is: bozak, kessel, lupul, phaneuf, gunnarson, orr, mcclement, kulemin, reimer.
on all teams you need offense. expecting kessel to be toews or a 2-way is unrealistic. he is a piece of the offense and if he's main part of it, you have problems.
bozak was actually playing better this year, but is lacks grit
-reimer aside from his streakiness is fine. he has rust but seems to have mental weakness. when he lets in crappy goals it snowballs from there. he didn't get better or worse.
-orr brings nothing now, doesn't fight, doesn't hit.
-phaneuf is the same, and also not a leader and not very -respected by the other teams. he did great pre-olympics.
-mcclement is slowing down with almost no offensive threat
-lupul is slowing down a bit with almost no defensive desire
-kulemin is drifting and showing less and less as the seasons pass. he did his best when playing with kadri and lupul. he's still defensive responsible, but showed less physicality and offense for his skill set.
these are the players that need to be traded if you want a culture change.
i'd throw in franson, gleason and clarkson just because they are slow and can't contain anybody.
personally, i'd keep bozak, kessel, lupul, as you need offense, and fill the forward lines with free agents who work hard or prospects (maybe broll or devane instead of Orr, See if Carrick can win faceoffs like mcclement, d'amigo on 3rd line and bodie on 4th, etc).
free agents that would be interesting are callahan, vanek, moulson, stasny, penner, setogouchi.