There is a decent chance that Ottawa's entire second-line from last season will be purged from the roster this off-season. Jason Spezza, at some point in the immediate future, is going to be traded. Milan Michalek remains a fairly unlikely bet to return unless he's willing to extend at a fraction of the cost of his past deal. And, Ales Hemsky -- who I sense the team loves -- is probably going to head to a legitimate Stanley Cup contender this summer.
With Hemsky, you kind of sensed that if Spezza stuck around, Hemsky would too. The two had ridiculous chemistry from the minute they were assembled until the end of the regular season, and there weren't many games where the opposition held them off the score sheet. Hemsky swooned over Spezza's game, but with the organization apparently prepared to move on from their one-year captain, it's probably not wrong to assume that Hemsky might be interested in looking elsewhere, perhaps to the chagrin of Bryan Murray.
This creates sort of an odd scenario for Bryan Murray and Paul MacLean. I mean, other than teams who are totally imploded and/or finish at the bottom of the National Hockey League, you just don't see that sort of turnover in the top-six. Though Kyle Turris' line with Bobby Ryan and Clarke MacArthur will remain intact, there are three vacancies -- all on the same line -- to be filled.
It's quite possible that any trade for Jason Spezza could return one of the three missing pieces, so ultimately, it's a bit difficult to really nail what three names fill those voids. For example, I'd imagine a Jason Spezza trade with St. Louis really hones in on a player like Patrik Berglund, who would immediately jump into a second-line role.
Internally, there are a lot of players (mostly prospects) who are probably going to be chomping at the bit of additional ice-time. The four forwards on this year's roster in the bottom-six that won't be jumping up include Colin Greening, Chris Neil, Zack Smith, and Erik Condra.
I think there's an easy argument to make here for Mika Zibanejad and getting him more ice-time this year (14:20 is just not nearly enough), but I wonder if the team feels he's ready yet to go through that Kyle Turris-esque transition in 2014-2015. Turris, if you remember, was kind of thrown into the fire a bit as he worked through his development a few years back. He's emerged as a tweener top-six center; you can get away with him on the team's top-line, and if he's on L2, he's one of the best second-line centers in the game.
The team could try to insulate him for one more year, pumping his minutes a touch but keeping his quality of competition down and his zone starts up. That'd mean another third-line role, perhaps with a player like Mike Hoffman and/or Mark Stone.
Those two guys, too, will likely be fighting for some top-six minutes. It's interesting about those two -- I get the sense a lot of people like Stone's game more than Hoffman's, but I think they're a lot closer than many think. Polar opposite players, of course. Stone's more refined in the hockey skill department, whereas Hoffman gets by with blazing speed and shot volume.
I don't know if either JG Pageau or Stephane Da Costa have any real chance at a top-six role, but you'd think that both guys can grab a roster spot in the bottom-six.
Which, of course, leaves us with a glaring issue: even if you are high on prospects like Zibanejad, Stone, and Hoffman, can this team really expect to contend with such young guys playing such crucial minutes? Or, alternatively: Can this team really expect to contend with those guys remaining insulated, and promoting a trio like Colin Greening, Zack Smith, and Chris Neil to the second-line?
The only reasonable option, if Ottawa just nets picks/prospects (and/or a defenseman) from a Jason Spezza deal, is to split up the Ryan-Turris-MacArthur line. As nutty as that sounds, you have to spread the limited talent around in the event that three of Ottawa's top-six forwards are gone.
I've said in the past that Ottawa really needs to target a top-four defenseman in a Jason Spezza deal or any deal this summer, but the more you think about it, the more you have to think a forward coming back would help out a bit more. Once you start plotting the potential lineup on paper and notice that the entire second-line has been eliminated, things start to get pretty dicey pretty quickly.
Thanks for reading!