Crunchrulz
Registered User
Again, VERY excellent points!Not asking for Crunch players/prospects to step in and be all-stars, but I believe a few can provide some depth in the.bottom 6. Whether it's a couple of them or a combo of them and cheaper ufa's, they can't be any worse(and for a cheaper hit cap wise), then dead weight Sheary and Jeannot.
I'm not as worried about the offense as I am the defense, which has seen a ga/g steadily increase over the past three seasons. Of course Vasy has had his issues the past couple of seasons, and perhaps he'll finally be back to form to start next season, but it won't matter if the defense continues leaking as badly as they are(for one reason or another).
While it may mean spending less on a top/middle 6 F, I hope the priority this summer(after Stamkos's situation is resolved) is adding a quality top.4.defensively sound RD. The team badly needs one and luckily, this summer should see a solid number of them hitting ufa. This is also the only way I would consider moving Cirelli, if the assets returned directly resulted in a top 4 RD with term(and in such a way that cap space would be gained such that Tampa could then also replace Cirelli to some degree as well).
In a nutshell, this offseason can be broken down into two scenarios;
1) Stamkos stays
2) Stamkos goes
Until that is resolved, we can speculate all we want. As we all know, the Cap Space involved in either solution will have a far bigger impact than trading and/or releasing any players other than one of the Core Six.