Platoon Plateaued?

After serious off-season scrutinizing, GM Morrison is said to have been feeling that the current line up may have reached their performance ceiling. "We kept expecting former first rounder Evander Kane to live up to his potential, but now he'll have to do that somewhere else. Frankly, I got tired of waiting. When Vegas approached us with the offer of a front line centre in Kyle Turris, we decided to move on. Kyle fills a big hole for us at centre and while only on a two year contract, gives us a chance to develop from within. We hope he'll be a solid mentor for our younger players. Welcome Kyle."

"We are thrilled to acquired Jake Guentzel, Esa Lindell and Aaron Dell in the 2017 draft. We think Jake is 'the real deal' and capable of 30 to 40 goals off the right side. Esa adds good size and big minutes to our depth on the blue line and Aaron brings a .931 save % to our goal-tending menagerie. All 3 look capable of stepping right into our line up. (We will, of course, be platooning our 4 goal-tenders to see who comes out on top). We still have a 5th Round pick coming, but the likelihood of that player stepping into our 2017 line up is remote, at best. Welcome Jake, Esa & Aaron."

"Our plan to re-build this franchise remains the same, try to get younger overall by adding depth and pushing from underneath, be competitive night in and night out and stay within budget. We've got a bit more money to play with this year so we'll be very active in the UFA market looking to fill a couple of spots. We had hoped to secure a centre iceman in the draft so there is a void to be filled there, as well as at right wing. There are a few guys we are talking to but the UFA market can be a hard place to try to build your club. There are so many teams prepared to throw buckets of money at established players that we have a hard time staying in the game. We'll just see how it goes."

"We are also actively listening to the trade wire but we don't expect that to heat up until we are through the draft and teams see how they do in the UFA market."

"We are looking forward to the season to come but we remain in the toughest division in hockey, the Canada West. Frankly, we're a bit tired of looking up in the standings at Winnipeg, Vancouver, Edmonton and Saskatoon and think this might be the year where we start to move up in the Division. Time will tell."