Flo The Action wrote:tim1_2 wrote:In a vacuum, trading Hoffman for the 10th overall isn't a terrible deal. In a vacuum, trading Karlsson because you think he's peaked and there are injury concerns and his contract has to be 8 years, isn't a terrible idea. It's hard to justify these things, though, when you think about how we were in the Conference Final a year ago. Why would the team need to be rebooted? I know we had a Dung year (in no small part due to all the distractions Karlsson was facing), but why rip things apart? Tampa didn't do this when they missed the playoffs a couple years ago....
In my opinion, if they wanted to shake things up a bit while maintaining a very competitive team, you ditch Smith, Burrows, and Harpur opening spots for a couple young guns, retain Karlsson and Hoff, trade Ceci, and sign or trade for a legit top-4 defenceman. That is obviously in an ideal world, and far from what we're apparently about to do.
I think it’s fairly obvious that the one thing that has changed in a year is Melnyk not wanting/being able to spend.
It was clear what we needed going into the season. A top 6 LW and a top 4 D. None of those things were addressed because of money.
There is no way we can address these things with Melnyk unable to meet payroll. Problem is he likely won’t be able to 3 years from now either.
And we are stuck in a stupid situation. We can’t Tank because our 1st is gone and we can’t win because Melnyk can’t pay what’s needed. It’s pretty clear that our only option is to have a change in ownership but I have big doubts that will happen.
If we are to go the full rebuild mode is it worth it to stay somewhat competitive?
I’d love to resign duchene and stone but do they want to stay long term?
I’m not advocating a fire sale but maybe we have better think about shedding our most valuable assets in the next two years I’m order to draft. Will stone and duchene still be super competitive 4-5 years from now? Stone already has a history of concussion and duchene will be nearing his mid 30’s.
Sucks but we may need a very hard reset if we lose kalrsson. Like a very VERY hard reset. Like trade anyone that’s over 25 over the next 2 years.
I'd argue that trading Karlsson and Ryan is your hard reset. A few 1st rd picks, high-end prospects, and/or young players with potential while shedding salary. What more can this team really do? Burrows and Pyatt are gone after next season, Smith is on the block, Gaborik will disappear via IR or retirement, Hoffman trade for a young d-man. Agreed it sucks that we won't have our 1st rd pick next year but we have 2 maybe 3 this year, and trading Karl will get us back into the 1st rd next season. The trick is not to let Stone or Duchene walk for nothing. No other team in the league is dependent on one player like Ottawa is on Karl. Losing one elite player to improve all other areas of the team isn't the worst idea out there. I think most fans just wish they could surround Karl with talent versus creating talent by trading Karl.