What does "This Team Showed US Something" mean to you? I believe it was Jeff Gorton who actually said it.Why do we have to be a better team right now? Did we barely miss the playoffs last year? Are we contending now?
We're currently in the middle of a rebuild. Sure, we're coming out of it here soon. But how does a 30 year old Mike Matheson help us win the Stanley Cup right now.
The only reason Mike Matheson plays 25 minutes a game for a team in the NHL, PK included, is because he's on one of the only teams that has the youngers/most inexperienced D core in the league. That's it.
The point of rebuilding isn't to improve the team in the present day. As. I mentioned way back in this thread, we traded Lehkonen, Toffoli, Monahan twice, Edmundson, etc because they were older players that helped the rebuild. But we can't trade Mike Matheson because we need to finish 8th last instead of 5th last.
Make it make sense.
A) We are looking to move players who just had a career year to continue the rebuild even if it makes us weaker?
B) We are happy to tread water for another season the future is bright.
C) We will look at every opportunity to make the team better providing it doesn't mortgage the future.
One of these answers is almost what was said verbatim by Kent Hughes.