The Next Step

In their introductory teleconference for Brad Richards, both Torts and Sather talked about the team needing to take the "next step." But first thing's first and the next step should be locking up Ryan Callahan, Artem Anisimov, Brandon Dubinsky and Michael Sauer. All four of them are now proven parts of the young core and they deserve to be locked up for the foreseeable future. There was some talk that Artem was close today, and Sauer should be pretty easy. But Dubi and Cally could take some time. Let's hope not, because they both deserve letters going forward. I haven't included Brian Boyle with this group. I don't think he's core, but would be thrilled to be proven wrong.

Interestingly, Sather said they would not pursue a high priced left wing and that Torts thought they might already have solutions. And he talked about not wanting to block the kids they have coming up in the system. They really are doing things in a refreshing way. I still think they'll make a trade, and might add a veteran D.