This is hard! Thinking out loud...
On the one hand, it would be good to sign an actually good player to push others down the lineup into more sensible roles, but I am a little leery of signing a big-name UFA. I fear (expect?) we would either trash our salary structure for upcoming prospects, or end up locked into over-payment for someone that washes out in their declining years. If a
good deal is out there, we should pull the trigger.
On the other, I think there are so many places (dead weight) where we could improve, that smaller signings could
measurably improve the team. Signing someone that is really good at their role would be great. I fear it would not play out that way. Roughly speaking, having a 2/3rd line tweener on the
third is great for depth and makes the team better. When that player inevitably ends up on the second?

I'd be happy to replace Holl with a good 3rd pair+ defenseman to temporarily plug a gaping hole. But, if we are going to buy a plug, can we at least buy from Home Depot instead of Temu?