[Petert]

So, how valuable are these late 1st?

That year when we drafted this "not a real #1 center" Monahan, we also drafted Poirier at 22nd and Klimchuk at 28th.
To be fair, one of the pick could have gotten us Burakovsky (23rd) or Theodore (26th) instead.
Honorable mentions: Lazar (17th), Rychel (19th) and Shinkaruk (24th).

And that was supposed to be one of the deeper drafts.
Just saying.

I said it was a crazy idea, but my idea of two 1st also come with the baggage of Lucic.
Losing Dube and Zary hurt, but I have a hard time believing PLD is not at least as good as Dube, if not better already.
It takes values to add values, and it takes extra values to unload Lucic's contract.

It's a hail mary move, mortgaging the future for essentially this and next year.
I believe with the recent additions of prime Markstrom and while both Tanev and Gio are still above average defenders, now is the time.
We have many many roster problems in as soon as a couple years anyway.
PLD (5.0) is sign thru 21-22 when he becomes RFA, at the same time when both Johnny (6.75) and Gio (6.75) are to become UFAs while Tkachuk (7.0) also becomes RFA.

And the importance of unloading Lucic?
Lucic (5.25) is sign thru 22-23, one whole extra year than all the aforementioned.