They were in a box once they signed Tavares.
A couple of years ago, I thought they needed to move Nylander for elite D, not because he’s a lesser player than the others (it seems like he actually has some steel in him), but rather because he was the only movable piece in the big 4. Matthews and Marner were untouchable and Tavares was unmovable.
That’s obviously changed. In retrospect, maybe rebalancing the roster wouldn’t have helped since Matthews and Marner can’t seem to deliver. They made some reasonably astute moves this year… Carlo, Laughton, decent goalies… but to no avail.
They’ll let Marner and Tavares go, and likely show some ankle to the McDavid camp.