Mercer is a nice player but I don't think he's the guy I'm going in on. I don't see him being better than Dach or Suzuki. Maybe if Dach gets hurt again, but Mercer doesnt feel like a long term center to me either.
I agree, unless he comes cheap, which i doubt.
For me, the only move that would make sense on offense will be to go get another star talent. If we look at the situation for 2025-2026 season, we have :
Slaf-Suzuki-Caufield
Demidov-Dach-Laine
Newhook-Beck-Roy
as a top 9 with Hage waiting in the farm.
So i would say our top 9 is top tier if everything goes as planned and is set for the long term. But if we are being honest, there are a lot of question marks on the top 6 :
Laine is a ?? in itself. Health, motivation, will he extend with us if he regains is old form?
Dach's health is still in doubt.
Is Caufield a 30 goals or a 40 goals scorer?
So if one or two of those ? happens, we will need another star talent replacement.
In two years we will have a great idea of what we have.