| 16 April 2009
So, as you probably already figured out, things are a bit of a mess here. No cap room, no goaltender, an overpaid and underperforming defense and Sakic is probably not coming back.
Not that you want my advice, but here you go anyway:
1. First and foremost, find a goaltender! Find the best UFA goalie and overpay if you have to. If that means you have to buy out Tucker and Clark in order to find the money, do it. Until we have an answer in goal, we have no hope to truly compete for the Cup.
2. Don’t screw up the 3rd overall pick. We need a home run here. You’ve essentially got first pick after the two “can’t miss” prospects (Taveras and Hedman). The next group aren’t all going to be NHL superstars. It would be super cool if you could find the Mikko Koivu of the group, but at a minimum, you need to avoid picking the Stanislav Chistov of the group.
3. Re-sign Lappy. Young teams need veteran leaders and Lappy is a leader. Sure, Stastny is a great player, but slapping a “C” on his jersey isn’t going to magically turn him into a true team leader. Ian wants to stay in Colorado – sounds like he’d be willing to a take a hometown discount.
4. OK, changed my mind. Even if you don’t need the cap room, buy out Tucker and Clark. Tear up the two worst contracts of your predecessor’s tenure. Tucker is old and only taking up room and cap space – you could probably count the number of games he was decent in last season on one hand. Clark showed this season why it took him so long to make it to the NHL in the first place, he’s just not talented enough.
First, add the best defensively sound UFA at a reasonable price (welcome back Skoula?!*) you can on July 1. Assuming that Shattenkirk stays at BU next year and you can't get Hedman with the 3rd pick, Verance showed that he is already more reliable defensively than Clark and its not like Clark was piling up the points last year. Then let Peltier, Macias, Cuminsky and Wilson battle it out to fill in if / when injuries happen on the blueline. (*cough* Footer *cough*)
* No, really. I know it’s hard to believe, but he was actually good this season in Minnesota.
5. Just one more piece of advice. If you re-sign Tyler Arnason, I can’t be held responsible for the flaming bags of dog poop on your doorstep.
Good luck!
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