I think I’d rather trade Leddy with retention than buy out Krug. We can trade Krug with retention too if needed but I’d rather get Leddy off the books. I think Neighbours will bridge unless he puts up 2 consistent seasons. I also wouldn’t mind trading Buchnevich for a solid group of assets. I like the idea of sending him back to NYR for Schneider, Kakko, and maybe a 2024 1st with half retention on Buch. That way we stock up and say 2025-26 is the season we begin trying again.

Exactly. Neighbours will get bridge deal like Thomas and Kyrou before. I think Buchnevich will be re-signed if he’s agree on 5-6 years. It has to be very good D-man if he is traded. But we will see.

Realistically we keep Buchnevich cause we should on paper be competing by 2027-28. I seriously think we need to suck the next 2 years and the retool would be complete. I mean imagine forward core being: Thomas, Kyrou, Buchnevich, Neighbours, Bolduc, Snuggerud, Dvorsky, add another top 10 forward, plus our depth options are Dean, Stenberg, Pekarcik, add some 2nd round selections, and free agents if prospects don’t pan out. Then defense is where we need help, we have Parayko under contract still, Lindstein should be in the bottom four, we hopefully draft a top 4 D this year, perhaps Perunovich breaks out. Defense free agents are gonna be essential.

Exactly my thoughts. Maybe even 2025-26 or 2026-27 can be in play. We need some things going right way, but I´m good with attack options. We´ll need someone like Hanifin or Chychrun sign with us. That would be great. We should have lot of cap space (especially if Krug is traded). I think we will need get D-man more via trade or FA. I´m not sure, even if we draft D-man in 2024, that he will be ready by that time. Probably not.

If we draft Dickinson or Levshunov (that’s a big ask since we would need to be Top 7), they should be ready by then, which would give both of them one year in OHL/NCAA and one year in AHL. I agree we need to try and sign someone big on defense. Leddy we could push to the 3rd line and buy out in his last year (which only hits $2M in 2025-26 and $1M in 2026-27). I think we are strapped next year for defense and then changes will happen. I think we trade Krug and/or Faulk that offseason. I think there are more intriguing options in the 2025 free agency class (Chychrun, Theodore, Provy, Gavrikov)

Of course, Levshunov or Dickinson could be (but still don’t know about TOP 4 impact role), but I don’t think we will be THAT bad. We will see… Yeah, we must get one of those Defensemen!