I see what your saying for sure. I think it's going to come down whether Dubas thinks Guentzel will re-sign. It's hard for me to imagine that they don't have a sense of that right now. I know Guentzel's agent said that they want to know what the plan is for the team for the next 8 or so years and he mentioned that tough decisions might have to be made. That made me think it's up in the air, but there is definitely a possibility he doesn't re-sign. The tough part is do you want to sign with a bad team that will be good in 1-2 years and likely for the rest of the contract, or re-sign with a good team that will be the opposite, good for 1-2 years and bad for the rest.

As far as what would happen if we traded him there is definitely a chance the team would collapse. He is probably our second best player right now and it would be tough to overcome. I also think the key to this teams success is playing smart, structured hockey. The past few weeks that's been the difference. When were playing that way I think we are really tough to beat regardless of who is in the lineup. The style we play has been a bigger problem to me than anything lineup related. This team is prone to bad habits and falling back into the unorganized way where we give up tons of odd man rushes. If we can limit that and keep doing what we're doing then I think we have a shot to make some noise in playoffs.

As far as what I actually think will happen I don't know. This is a new regime and this is a position the team hasn't been in for a while. Having a big player due for a huge raise but knowing there's only 1-2 more years left of contending. I think it depends how the next few weeks go. Tonight will be a huge test. Vancouver is very fast and has an insane offense. If we can slow the game down and limit their chances I think that's a great sign going forward. If we can't that concerns me that we will struggle to maintain our structure against those types of teams in a 7 game series.