In a reckless (Darryl Sutter) alternate universe, I would trade the 2014 1st rd pick and Gaudreau for Seguin.
Keep Backlund and keep our 2nd round pick. Then I would reinforce the roster with UFAs/salary dumps so that our 2014 1st round pick is merely 12th to 20th overall.
Take advantage of the unique opportunity where teams have to shed salary, or buyout decent players this summer to get under the cap.
Defense
I would use some of our our cap space to add 2 defensemen (4th or 5th on the depth chart) to complement Giordano/Wideman/Brodie and leave O'Brien/Smith/Butler/Cundari to battle for 6/7/8. These would be 1 or 2 yr deals (there is an abundance veterans on the market this year... 20 UFAs who played 18+ mins/game and lots of other decent D-men who played 14 to 17 mins).
Goal
I would sign a veteran goalie (might wait until training camp), because Ramo and/or Berra will need a year to adapt to North American game. If I am wrong and end up with too many good goalies, then Ortio can always go to Europe and Joey Mac can go to AHL. Brossoit should play in ECHL no matter what.
Forward
With Seguin as #1C, I think the forward lines are solid:
Cammy - Seguin - Glencross
Hudler - Stajan - D. Jones
Baertschi - Backlund - Stempniak
Galiardi - Knight - Jackman
Reinhart, Horak, B. Jones
I would keep Monahan in junior and not "waste" 1 year of his ELC. Buy time for our recently stocked pool of prospects to develop.
Still have the option to trade expiring UFAs Cammy/Stempniak/Stajan for draft picks at the deadline, so that we still draft 2 or 3 players in the top 60 next year. Cammy might score a ton of goals with Seguin and yield a 1st round pick at the deadline.
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