Like I’ve been saying for a long time... Lindholm makes Backlund expendable. Literally a younger, cheaper, more talented upgrade. Backlund for a true top-six right-shot RW is the perfect move for this team. It gives us two complete scoring lines and a solid punishing line. Then we just need 3 pairs of cheap legs on the 4th that aren’t attached to mistake-prone brains, and we’re golden.
The book on us is shut down the top line, play against our middle two lines and wait for the fourth line to get caught in a mismatch, or just make enough “not the right plays” until you can capitalize. We finally found a really good third line in Bennett, Looch and Dube; having two serious scoring lines and a 4th that can eat 10 mins a night without putting us in the hole means there’s no more book.
Gaudreau Monahan Tkachuk
Mangiapane Lindholm RW
Lucic Bennett Dube
Simon/Nordstrom Gawdin Leivo
Backlund and a pick for that RW (a good RW).
Ryan to (partially) recoup the pick and shed some cap.
Not saying either of these guys are possible, but Backlund is expendable and we’re a Nylander or Reinhardt away from being a serious contender.
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