One guy I will be interest to add to your team, without a top 6 role but a third liner, for the incoming years is Dmitry Voronkov. I like how hard he play, he can skate, hit, play hockey and he can be mean. He remind me in some way of a better version of Evgeny Artyukhin without the crazy stuff and the size or a less complete version of Andrei Nichushkin; a beast and a man you don't like to play against!
I'm not too sure what value he can have but with the prospects and the picks we have, they can find a way to pull the trigger! I would like to see what a player like this can do in a big market like Montréal when we will be able to compete after Columbus on losing mode; maybe he can take an extra gear! I like Olivier too if we can bring him as a 13th forward, make it happen!
I would like to target a lineup with some size and talent in every line and pay the price you need to draft Cayden Lindstrom too to achieve that if they believe he can be the guy we need : Our 1st, Winny pick and/or Farrell/Mesar/Barron could be included for my part with compensation from the other side; we need to give something to have something and we are at a stage where we need quality over quantity!
In 3 years, after the end of the crazy Bergy era with $$$ waste, this is the kind of lineup I would like to target!
??? - Suzuki - Slaf /// Roy - Suzuki - Slaf
Caufield - Lindstrom - Dach (Caufield on 2nd/1B for size issue, split with Suzuki)
Roy - Beck - Voronkov /// Newhook - Beck - Voronkov
Olivier / RHP* - F. Xhekaj - Heineman
Guhle - ???
Hutson - Reinbacher
A. Xhekaj - Mailloux
Engstrom/Struble
??? - Fowler / Fowler - Montembault
RHP can be replace by a defensive player with a lot of commitment with close to no salary cap to do the dirty works!
Drafting Lindstrom, give a plan B with Dach if the health issues still a problem and if not you can still use Dach on his strong side for the faceoff and be better in that department! Dach can switch after the faceoff or simply can became a full-time winger. With Lindstrom on board who combine size and talent it will be more easy to find the missing forward if we need one! It's more easy to find a productive winger than a big center/big forward who can play hockey in the Top 6.
Try to find the missing pieces with the assets/money we have and don't be affraid to pay the price if you have an opportunity. We can do the Eric Lindros, the Tanner Jeannot and the Brandon Hagel trades and we would still have difficulty to sign every prospects we drafted in the incoming years! At the moment, we have so many picks then we wasted some in not being able to sign everyone. We only sign the "good ones" and it's not a bad thing to have the choice but you understand what I'm trying to said!
A 1st liner, a 1st D and a 1st G in the worst case and maybe we already have this pieces, time will tell but we never have too much good players! We need to find a way to find our Panarin, Fox and Shesterkin to complete the puzzle in a perfect world!
