Quoting: Phleb2
IMO, Dallas is not in a "Full Rebuild" situation.
The young core of Hintz, Gurianov, Heiskanen, Oettinger, Robertson all have NHL experience and are not prospect anymore.
Lindell, Suter, Benn and Seguin are pass their prime but still have something in the tank. And, all of them have NMC in their contracts.
We have solid youth more than ready for NHL duties IMO in Dellandrea, Harley and Damiani.
And we have strong prospect that will be knocking on the NHL door sooner than later in Johnston, Bourque and Stankoven.
Now, we just need a new HC and a new GM with a modern philosophy in order to get us out of that ultra defensive/boring/out of date hockey.
My first question to that new HC would be to ask him if Faksa is a 3rd line center justifying over 15 minutes per game. If the answer is NO than this candidate would have a chance with me.
I agree, I don't think they're in rebuild mode, especially with roughly $28m in cap space coming this offseason(with Bishop on LTIR)...
Re-Sign a 1A/1B goalie to play with Oettinger jic he's not completely ready to be f/t no. 1, so possibly bring back Holts for another year at roughly $3.5m, while maybe signing Oettinger to a bridge deal for 1/2 years to get Dobby's money off the books entirely(if they can in the offseason, maybe use that money combined with Oettinger for 4/5 years at $4m per season)..With Hintz/Robertson and Paveski being such a solid line with unreal chemistry, maybe look to bring Joe P back to finish his career in the Big D for maybe $4-$5mish, and sign Robertson to the exact same term/$$ to see how he pans out as well during this time too, maybe give him half of Joe P's money when he retires in addition to the deal he would've signed by then.. 100% let Sekera and Radulov walk(unless Rads was willing to take a 1 year deal worth roughly $2m to play on the 3rd line, but I'd rather Dellandrea do that for cheaper).. Have Harley takeover the 2nd/3rd pairing on the left side, ideally he'd start on the 3rd pairing but play himself past Suter going forward(think Suter will carry more value/help this kid as his deal finishes out, much like Brooks Orpik in Wash with Orlov).. Then look to fill the voids with a top 4 right handed shooting d man, with offensive upside-possibly to a team w/ a bit of cap issues, cough Edmonton cough, and maybe get a cheaper short term solution like Tyson Barrie to take Klingberg's spot/minutes, should Edmonton need the space.. And solidify the top 9 wingers, with another scoring winger-likely to play LW or RW with Benn/Seguin, but not too terribly older/expensive- Nino Neiderreiter comes to mind. Bigger guy can move well, 29 come year end and can play in the top 9 for sure...