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Gaunce is ready for the NHL but not for a top pairing role, and won't be this year unless we decide to force it and put him in a position to fail. He will start out on the bottom pairing.
Cobra, in 2-3 years Siemens will be cracking the team on the bottom pairing, he will not be our second pairing shutdown mainstay, at least not if this team wants to have any actual playoff success. Youth movement in the forward group makes sense to a degree but young defensemen need to be brought a long slowly and deliberately. Duncan has this last year with the Blades then I imagine he'll play a 1.5-2 seasons up and down with the Monsters. He won't be one of the main horses on the blueline until a little while after that and that's ok.
Trading Duchene is a foolish idea unless the Avs have the opportunity to replace him with another elite offensive player through some other means. Sure the Nords could trade Lindros and Sundin because they had Sakic and Forsberg but this squad doesn't have that luxury. Staz and O'reilly aren't leading any teams to cups by themselves. Better hope he can turn things around.
We need someone much better to play with EJ than Wilson or Gaunce unless we feel like hampering EJ's development further.
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