fair for duclair or no

I think if there was a four year deal out there for Duclair, he probably would've already signed it. Wouldn't be surprised to see him closer to 1-2 years by 2.5M with the cap the way it is. I also don't know if adding Duclair really improves anything if comes at the cost of moving Mangiapane out of the Top 6 and trading Ryan. I think the only way you consider that is if you're adding a bonafide Top 6 winger and Duclair may need another year to prove it for me.

I like Duke, but he is far too inconsistent and when he's not on, he doesn't really help the team in any way. I would much rather go after Haula as he also plays C and is much better defensively. I also wouldn't run with Domingue as the backup, I would rather go with someone like Howard or Anderson as the backup and I think both would be fairly affordable.

That said, we should also keep Doc, our PK is down to 4 forwards that can PK already, which means 2-3 new PKers already, we can't afford to take more hits on the PK... especially in your scenario when you have Nordstrom in the pressbox, which would put us to 2 PKers.

Duclair overplayed his hand at the exact wrong time, he'll be lucky to get 2.5/yr at this point

With where all the teams are it in terms of caps and contract space, I don't see anyone giving you at 3rd round pick for a 33 y/o bottom 6 pivot who's making over $3M.
Hell, a team could sign Haula or Brassard for less money and not give up a pick... Getting anything back on a guy like Derek Ryan right now isn't really likely.

i agree hes a bit of a wild card. hes really only had the one good year in ottawa. moving mangiapane out of the top 6 only makes us deeper and that is a great thing. I mean look at the so called 4th line here we got fringe second line talents on that line. I think people need to get away from the old school thinking of 2nd, 3rd and 4th lines as teams should be looking to play all of their lines as equal an amount as they can if their able to acquire the depth pieces to do it. nothing is stopping anyone from moving those guys around oin the lines aswell. for example i think lucic and duclair playing together could be pretty good. Ryan is an overpayed Penalty killing specialist. i would much rather pick up some young talent and cheap veterans then keep him on the team