from Scott Burnside of ESPN,
The Rangers are certainly one franchise that needs an overhaul of some sort after being bounced in the first round by the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Boston Bruins have missed the playoffs two straight years and, to put it charitably, are in a state of transition. To put it less charitably, they seem adrift. They need help along the blue line and up front.
Even though the Edmonton Oilers made a stir Wednesday when they acquired Adam Larsson from the New Jersey Devils in exchange for former No. 1 overall draft pick Taylor Hall, the Oilers need more help along the blue line. Edmonton is expected to make a serious run at forward Milan Lucic, who played for current Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli in Boston and won a Cup there.
The Detroit Red Wings have cap room and had been expected to make a play for Stamkos. They could now turn their attention to some of the other forwards on the market (more on that below), but Red Wings GM Ken Holland also needs to find out what his current core of young players is capable of following the departure of Pavel Datsyuk and the wake of waning productivity from captain Henrik Zetterberg. Detroit will move into a new building in October of 2017, and that's when the team needs to be arcing upward -- so Holland may be more conservative this time around because he's keeping his powder dry for next summer.
Create an Account
In order to leave a comment, please create an account.