Hate to give up more futures, but if management really believes this team has what it takes, then the window is 3 years before the D needs to be rebuilt/retooled.
That, combined with a stable of good, young D prospects (Valimaki, Andersson, Fox, Kylington, Kulak) and the fact that our core forwards are mostly very young still (Gaudreau, Monahan, Tkachuk, Bennett, Jankowski) means you might as well load up now if you can.
However, NO rentals. Get a guy like Hoffman, who's contract status lines up perfectly with the perceived window (2.5 more years).
The 2019 1st + Mangiapane would have to be a really strong starting point IMO.
Gaudreau - Monahan - Ferland
Tkachuk - Backlund - Frolik
Bennett - Jankowski - Hoffman
That is a very strong, and overall quite young, top 9 forward group to swing for the fences with while this window is supposedly open. Need to get Backlund, or at least a decent equivalent, signed though because that would leave a gaping hole.
Not without risk though. Just a month ago it looked very much like the Flames may have handed a lottery pick to the Isles, and one bad stretch could bring that back into play in no time. Two years of that would be unbearable.
But if they want to stand pat and see what this roster can do on it's own, I'm OK with that too for this year. Just don't pay the ridiculous price for a rental.
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