BeLeafer
Well-known member
Our wingers could go from... Lupul-Kessel; JVR-Frattin; Mac-Kuly; Komoravo-goon
to Lupul-Kessel; JVR-Perry; Mac-Frattin; Kuly/Komo-goon.
That would give us three legitimate scoring lines, two of which should be near the top of the league in production regardless of their centre. And, we would have guys like Komarov and/or Kulemin on our fourth line.
I really can't think of many teams in the league that have that quality and depth of wingers. 5-6 of those guys could easily score 20 goals, and Kuly, with his 30 goal season, would likely be on our fourth line. Gotta think that would increase our ability to content. Can't see how it wouldn't really.
We're not weak on the wing, but this addition gives us two elite wingers. That means that the other team's top d-men can only key in on one of Kessel/Perry... that opens up a lot of ice for the other one playing against 2nd unit d-men.
Right now, wingers is a strong point for the team: Kessel, Lupul, JVR, MacArthur, Frattin, Komarov, Kulemin in that order. Put Perry into that mix and remove Kulemin and it's clearly an upgrade at that position.
The question is how big of an impact this makes and, in a cap world, the extent to which it may restrict you moving forward. Just between Kessel, Lupul and JVR, we have $15M locked up for next season (and Kessel will get a raise the following season). That's 23% of the cap on those three wingers. Throw Perry into the mix and that jumps to $24M and 37% on your cap on just your top line wingers.
I don't have time to finish this .... I'll return to it later, but we'll also probably have $10M locked up next year for the top two centres (Kadri and Grabovski). That's more than half of your cap on your top two lines and you still need an upgrade at centre.