Isn't Boeser like a young Toffoli? Good goal scorer but that's about it. Not very physical and not a great skater. I really dislike both him and Debrusk on the Canucks.
Boeser is a younger, worse version of Toffoli.
One that is even slower, softer, worse defensively, and worse in terms of puck-possession. Boeser has "higher highs" offensively though, but much "lower lows" to Toffoli too, as well as being less consistent than the latter.
In short, we do not need Boeser on our team, at all.
What we need is to somehow instantly give three more years of good experience and positive physical maturing/skill development to Michael Hage and Alexander Zharovsky so they can help us with our top-6 problems as soon as next season.
Since this is obviously impossible, we'll have to settle for the next best thing which is to try and trade for immediate help, likely even sacrificing one of those two top forward prospects.
We need help at 2C, and a #2 LW. Unless our management thinks that Newhook is a second-line left-wing, but I am not convinced yet.
We also need help at D, to get bigger, and stronger in the bottom pairing and also either give minutes to one of our young D (Reinbacher, Engstrom) or acquire ourselves a ready-made partner for Hutson on the right.
Since we won't be able to fit all of those upgrade under the cap with Gallagher taking up capspace for very little tangible good, we also need to look at trading him.
Oh, and we also need to inquire about trading Montembeault in order to acquire a new veteran backup to Jakub Dobes so that Fowler has time in the AHL to develop further before he's tasked with a lot of minutes in the NHL.
After that comes an evaluation of our own RFAs, and whether or not it might not be better to trade them or re-sign them.
Oh, and we need to keep drafting well so we get more prospects like Pickford, Dobes, Fowler, Xhekaj, Zharovsky, and Hutson out of the draft with later-round picks.
We also need to see what we can add in the UFA market. If a guy like Mason Marchment is available for not too crazy a term and money, maybe we move on it. Maybe we also commit to AJ Greer as depth with size and truculence on our team.
All put together, it means that Kent Hughes will have a busy Summer again and will need to make a metric ton of decisions roster-wise, especially at the Draft this upcoming Friday and Saturday.
If I had my way, I would look to sign Ryan Shea on the cheap if possible, and then try and trade one of our other Ds to increase our leverage/assets.
Ryan Shea was tremendous for Pittsburgh this season and I feel is underrated across the league right now and might be ripe to get signed to a good deal.
