You can find franchise players all over, but it’s easier when you draft top-3. And you can’t whiff on those selections.
You MUST have two centres. We have Lindholm - he probably is an O’Reilly level player, no real argument here. But No other centre on this roster is a championship caliber top 2 C.
Pittsburgh- Sid and Geno
Chicago- Toews, Sharp/Richards
Anaheim- MacDonald, Getzlaf
Boston- Bergeron, Krecji
Detroit- Datsyuk, Zetterberg
LA- Kopitar, Carter
Washington- Backstrom, Kuznetzov
St Louis- O’Reilly, Schenn
Carolina- Staal, Brind’Amour
Calgary- Lindholm, Monahan? Backlund?
That makes it super tough. Now, if anyone can make it work, it’s Darryl.
I’d feel much better if we were running Lindholm/Pavelski one-two instead of what we’ve got.
And it’s highly unlikely we will draft a centre that can play with this group of top guys in the next 3-5 years - Dube was drafted five years ago, and he’s yet to become anything special.
If such a player exists, he’s already been drafted. There’s no sense expecting a 2nd or late 1st this year to be more impactful than anyone we could trade for.
(And if we spend a 1st on Toffoli and not a centre… smh)
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