I'd like Torres, but where would he even play?
Versteeg Bozak Kessel
Caputi Kadri Kulemin
Sjostrom Grabovski Armstrong
Orr Hanson Brown
I think if you get a first line winger, that pushes Versteeg, Caputi, and Sjostrom each down a line, or I suppose you can insert Torres on the third line and push Sjostrom down one. But then when they add the top 6 winger, where does Caputi go?
There's a bit of a logjam, looking like another trade of a forward might be on tap. And the fact that Kulemin is still unsigned scares me a great deal. I have to wonder, how do they justify to Kulemin that he's not worth $3M now that they've given that to Armstrong? They should've locked him up to whatever he wanted in the $2.5M range the other night and avoided this problem.
It is a bit of a problem.
Let's assume Torres would sign for peanuts first.
Now, you look at our bottom 6, and take out guys who don't belong according to Burke's "top 6, bottom 6" system:
Grabovski - the only reason he might stay, is as a contingency plan for Bozak - Kadri down the middle. Strong chances he'll be traded before season starts though.
Caputi - Not sure he'll stick around in the NHL. He has potential, but the way he played at the end of last season seems to indicate he needs more AHL seasoning.
So now your top / bottom 6 looks like ...
XXXX - Kadri - Kessel
Kulemin - Bozak - Versteeg
----------------------------------
Sjostrom - Hanson - Armstrong
Orr - YYYY - Brown
It seems like we need a 4th line C more than anything, and Torres doesn't play C. I don't think Burke will play Grabs on the 3rd line and send Hanson down to the 4th line.
Of course, if Burke trades for Savard or a top line center then it changes everything too.