Assuming we keep Stempniak and Glencross, we should still add at least two gritty two-way forwards to fill out the top 9, and those will propably have to be UFA's. This is just so we can pretend to be an NHL team next season, and to give the kids some room to play, plus keep them healthy. Those guys will propably be veterans. This might seem counterintuitive, but IMO this is simply the way it is, since the issue has not been addressed before. One of those two should really be a center.
BTW; I hope Feaster is not too literal with his "no post-apex players", because young gritty solid two-way players will not be available in the UFA market. (Besides, this is a role that players often get better at with experience.)
Our top young forwards:
Backlund, Horak, Baertchi
Reinhart (might not be ready next year?)
Possible high 1st round draft pick
We would propably at this point be better off keeping Cervenka. Give him a chance to get into proper NHL shape, give him a one-year deal and a chance to showcase himself properly, and he should have some entertainment value to start the season and trade value at trade deadline.
Stajan, Cammalleri, Tanguay, Hudler. This is really the crux of our problem. Too many soft veterans. Stajan is okay, although it would make things much easier if we could replace him with a more physical player. However, he's not really the problem. Cammalleri, Tanguay and Hudler are. I think we can afford to keep one of them, two if we let Cervenka go. (But I'd rather trade two of these and keep Cervenka, because that should get us more resources for the future.)
I think Aliu has the potential to become an effective pest, so I'd keep him around, and McGrattan is fine in his role, which should be even more important next season, so keep him or upgrade for someone better.
Also, we will need a goalie with NHL experience next season, we can't just go with two rookies. That means MacDonald should propably stay. Plus if he ends up being the odd man out, he's easy to move. There will certainly be a taker for him in the waivers, and with luck he might even give us a low draft pick.
Bringing up Breen should help some in physicality, so we need only one more guy in defense on top of Brodie, Giordano, Wideman and Smith.
(Sarich is already too old and slow to play in the NHL, and will be even worse next season; the obligatory million dollar popcorn muncher. Buy him out or something. Feasters worst signing so far, total waste of money and a contract spot. Plus since Sarich was supposed to bring some physicality, that signing made one of our big weaknesses even worse by failing to address the issue.)
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