Marody isn’t ready. Not convinced that Rsttie can continue to succeed on the top line. Too much, too long for Nurse.

Like the Grabner signing (dollars and term). Like the Carlson signing - too long, though. Give him, say, 40M over 5 years.

I think Rattie earned another look on the top line, but it’s certainly a wait and see kind of situation. I reckon PC will throw money at Nurse, and if it’s not a cheap bridge, I’d rather a gamble at what will likely be a very serious bargain contract over time.

For the most part what I was thinking is that Carlson and Grabner are the free agents for us to grab, and if we can shed one bad contract, we should be able to come up with the dough to make those two work. Our system actually shows a lot of promise, and our roster isn’t too far off really. But I don’t think we should mortgage our future to succeed now, we should get help through FA and shedding Hose bad contracts as possible.

I’d rather lose Lucic than Sekera to be honest, but I think if Sekera agrees to a trade, he’ll actually be movable yo a fef has starved team - he was rotten when he was here last year, but he was coming off injury and I expect he’ll bounce back. Looch could bounce back too, but that’s the only way his contract will be movable, so hopefully next off season something can be done about that.

Carlson is definitely a longer signing than ideal, but again, I think he’ll be a hot commodity, and that’s what it will need to sign him for realistic money. Try and sctructure the deal so that he’s tradable or ok to buyout after 4 or 5 years if his play drops off at that point.

As for Marody, I’m by no means sold on him being there, or ready, just thinking that there is likely a spot for one of our prospects who proves themselves worthy at training camp. I’d go into FA for someone dependable as a 4C, but there really isn’t money for that, unless the cap goes up to 82 mil. I’m sure one of our forwards can crack the lineup, whether it’s Marody in the bottom 6, or Yamo taking a spot in the top 6 and pushing someone else down.

The real point here is to bump this team up where it’s contending without giving anything up. We have prospects in the system at forward, defense, and in net. The cap is rising. We have a 10th OA draft pick. The right players are there in free agency, make some room, add them, and Lee stockpiling th cupboards for the future.