Off season wish list

[gaijin]

OK, who had "re-sign De La Rose" on their off-season wish list?

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

[glen a richter]

OK, who had "re-sign De La Rose" on their off-season wish list?

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Let me refer to the hard copy wish list I wrote up... nope, not there. Must have been an oversight on my part.

[flyingnote38]

if petro leaves, what's plan B?
lot of teams with cap issues
some intriguing D names rumored available in trade
might we manage to "fall with style"

[glen a richter]

if petro leaves, what's plan B?
lot of teams with cap issues
some intriguing D names rumored available in trade
might we manage to "fall with style"

If it were up to me, and developmentally feasible, I'd be going with one of the kids like I've said in other threads. Nostalgia is for people who don't have much hope for the future and while signing Pietrangelo to a long term contract now might yield some playoff runs before he gets too old and the contract becomes an albatross for the last couple of seasons reality needs to sink in. Repeating is hard to do in this league, and if you count this season as a real season then they not only didn't repeat but also didn't put up a real good fight there at the end.

I look at the prospects in the organization and I like a lot of what I see, not only on D but also a handful of forwards who are intriguing--Mattias Laferriere, Nikita Alexandrov and of course more "now type" players like Klim Kostin and Jordan Kyrou. I also like the long term plan in net, been following Joel Hofer closely and he's developing real well, I think. I think this team has drafted generally well even though I think the 2018 draft was a joke and they blew that one big time. I expect them to draft well this year. I expect them to shore up the RHD early on and then get some complimentary pieces for mid-6 forwards down the line.

In the salary cap era, it's crazy to think anyone could really stay with the same team their entire career. Guys like Crosby, Malkin, Ovechkin notwithstanding, I think the more important thing to be able to do in this era is draft and develop well so that the window never really closes and I think the Blues have done that basically decently and with guys like Parayko, Gunnarsson and even Faulk, I think there's enough of a veteran support system to accommodate one rookie on the blueline heading into next season. I get that all the best prospects (Mikkola, Walman, Perunovich, Tucker) in the organization are LHD and that doesn't necessarily replace Pietrangelo properly but I have confidence in Berube to make it work in a way that the team will still be successful next season and beyond.