Lancer wrote: ↑Wed Feb 25, 2026 9:03 am
I'm looking for which among the youngsters will amount to anything worth keeping when the new core comes into its own. No stars on the horizon unless Cootes turns a corner in his development, but I can see some depth pieces in the Hughes return in Buium and Ohgren.
Rossi's too old to be anything more than a placeholder like Petey. Willander looks like a plausible option in the top-4 moving forward. The rest of the youngsters? May as well get a Lotto-Max ticket for better odds but worth watching to see if any beat the stacked odds.
What I'm looking for to stay interested over the next few years...
1. Certainly the young "hopefuls" to form our next core. Biggest problem is we don't have enough of them yet, certainly not any sure fire pieces at this point, but a few worthy of keeping an eye on for now.
2. The fire sale. Whatever we can sell off this year and what kind of a return they can yield. Not expecting much, a handful of 3rds/4ths I suppose would be fine with me. Unless Petey for a package of 1st/prospects is a realistic possibility..not holding my breath.
3. The placeholders with any kind of value. With Hronek we already know what he is and can get in return, only question is will he allow it in the next few years. Rossi's probably the main one I'm looking at. Considering the ask for him over the past offseason was a 1st, he should at least get you that now and in the foreseeable future. Can he improve his stock to net even more over the next couple of years?
4. Manufacturing value. Can we sign and/or trade for more placeholders who have the potential to flip for future value? They've done sign and flips before involuntarily (Soucy, Sherwood). Not sure you can find another score like Sherwood but need to try to do more of that, and we've never seen this team do anything creative like weaponize cap space.
5. Recovering value. Can Chytil and Demko get healthy again to help us recoup some futures? Perhaps not likely, but another thing to keep interest in. This would be bonus territory at this point.
6. Tolopilo. I guess this belongs in my first category but goaltending is probably the most important piece to impact a solid rebuild. Medvedev is way too much of a wildcard at this point. I have no idea if there's anything there with NT. Way too small a sample size and at 25 he maybe doesn't fit the age range. But could there be something there, if not a core piece maybe another placeholder for futures?
7. Tank. This one will take care of itself over the next 2, 3, 4, 5 years...don't you worry.
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