I'm a big believer in building from the goaltender forward and through the middle.
We are blessed to have a top-5 goalie who is in his prime. We have Staal and Girardi (if he sticks around) and young d-men gaining experience and coming up. But we need a BIG STRONG D-MAN and a TOP-LINE CENTER.
Let's face it, half of the league doesn't even have a top-line stud center. The other half have their centers locked up and going nowhere.
A couple of names that I think could be available at center, based on either their salary situation or the direction their clubs are going:
Top-line centers:
Jason Spezza
Mike Robiero
Paul Stastny
I think matching up any of those with Gaborik and Dubinsky would be solid. If we can't make a trade for any of those, here are some secondary centers:
Patrick Sharp
Brad Boyes
Ryan Kessler
Peter Mueller
Nathan Horton
Patrick O'Sullivan
Shawn Horcoff
Getting a TRUE top-line center will enable us to align the rest of the players in place. Dubi needs to stay on the wing and on the top line. If we don't re-sign Prospal, then we should re-up Christensen as our #2 or #3 (flipflop with Drury). We need Callahan & Avery on the second line banging away, causing problems. We need Anisimov & Kotalik on the third line getting minutes, and we need Boyle, Lisin and Brashear on the 4th line with Voros watching from the press box.
As for the big d-man, obviously Phaneuf can't be in the same room as Avery, but Regehr would be solid.
Couldn't agree more. I would add a top enforcer as well on that list, Brashear is just liquefying in front of our eyes game after game. We've seen this week with the Bradley/Ovechkin/Downie incident in Tampa, that an enforcer is strongly recommended. We're close to have none.
Step 2:
A top-line forward. it would be nice to have a #1 center but another first line winger would work as well.
Step 3:
Let the team grow together and only make small changes for a couple of seasons while they grow chemistry. Integrate the young players in as this occurs(McDonagh, Sanguinetti, Grachev, Stepan, Weise, Dupont, Hagelin, Kreider)
1. 2 x top 6 forwards who can actually carry the puck into the zone. If we can get this, it will make our current fwds such as Avery, Cally, Dubi much more effective.
We should get that John Scott from the Wild as he is mega huge and weighs 260lbs and he looks like he likes fighting . I was pretty impressed with him in the Canuck game the other night although I felt sorry for the other guy on the receiving end . Also of note...the Wild have added another great addition in Latendresse who has 10 goals in 23 games . He is young...big and cheap at 800 Grand ...must be why Sather missed out on him !
Step 2:
A top-line forward. it would be nice to have a #1 center but another first line winger would work as well.
Step 3:
Let the team grow together and only make small changes for a couple of seasons while they grow chemistry. Integrate the young players in as this occurs(McDonagh, Sanguinetti, Grachev, Stepan, Weise, Dupont, Hagelin, Kreider)
Why don't you write on how you suggest on getting this done? It's easy to point this out, harder to show realistic ways if doing it. Everyone will write dump Drury and company with no one showing how it could get done. I can see by your avatar your a tank person so i'm not surprised by your #3 suggestion (which won't happen).
I really really belive that if we can sign him as a free agent (and by doing so trade away none of our youth) our team quickly becomes legitamite. I also think that we need a crease clearing defenseman but I'd rather start with Ilya.
Why don't you write on how you suggest on getting this done? It's easy to point this out, harder to show realistic ways if doing it. Everyone will write dump Drury and company with no one showing how it could get done. I can see by your avatar your a tank person so i'm not surprised by your #3 suggestion (which won't happen).
1) This thread was about needs, I posted what needed to be done.
2) I grabbed this avatar when everyone was saying we should tank, about 3-4 weeks ago. I grabbed this one as more of a joke, hence why it is a turtle. I left to go to China for 2 weeks, therefore I wasnt here so I havent changed it and I find out when I get back that they have been playing well so why change it until they start to play bad?
3) How am I to know what teams would be interested in the players I listed? Rozsival could be moved and I would imagine there would be a team interested in adding Kotalik for their PP. Redden is a whole other story but in order for this team to move forward they need to rid themselves of that contract, whether it be bury him in the minors and allow him to go play elsewhere(like Europe) if he desires.
To lose as many games as posible and build a team the way Chicago and Pitt. did it. Get the best picks you can in the draft for a few years and hope they turn into franchise players.
To lose as many games as posible and build a team the way Chicago and Pitt. did it. Get the best picks you can in the draft for a few years and hope they turn into franchise players.
We have a ton of potential top 6 guys in the pipeline. We should trade our first pick during draft day with some lower tier prospects for quality players like Reghr or a top center.. Boston has a ton of quality centers maybe we can trade for one of theirs.
Lets face it... We have been grabbing quality guys in the 2nd,3rd rounds for a couple years now. I firmly believe we can continue the trend with Hockey Genius Clark at the helm.
I agree with your idea on how to build a team. We have Hank, we have a young and up-and-coming defense, and now we just need a genuine center, obviously. So what I would do is simply develop Anisimov into one. He has the potential. He has great hands. He has the size, but just needs to fill out his frame.
Agreed. One of my friends is an Avs fan. He said, "you'll pry Statsny from my cold dead hands after you give up Lundqvist."
Well we could have drafted him four slots ahead of the 'Lanche.
But look at it this way, Mike Sauer - whom we drafted instead - is helping to make our prospect pool look brilliant here at Hockey's Future. And let's face it, it's far more important to have a prospect pool that's "the envy of the league" than it is to have any contributions Stastny could bring to the team that actually plays on the ice.
He is a rookie. It'll change when he continues to develop.
I respectfully disagree. Players are usually fully-formed by the time they get to the NHL, at least as far as their on-ice habits. Lindros never figured it out and neither did a few others I can think of.
I just feel as long as Sather is running this team...we'll never fully realize the potential of our youth in players like Cally,Dubi and Arty because they are playing on a roster that so poorly put together. Eventually, they'll all move on to greener pastures where their talents will finally be put to good use.
What we need is to fix the problems within instaed of putting bandaids on the probelms so we can lose in the first or maybe second round. Letting overdue Sather walk, dump highly paid players that will cost this team moving forward, primarily Drury and Redden, but also Roszival. I also wouldint mind letting Higgins go. The guy plays hard but with his head down and doesent exhibit much hockey sense. You cant build a contender if these things r not done. To me it wouldint be fair to keep Sather his job, since its been way to many overpiad players that are not living up to anything he imagined because of poor scouting and not much thinking about the upcoming scenarios down the road.
