Report: Brassard Out for the Year

According to Aaron Portzline, Derick Brassard may soon be facing season ending shoulder surgery. A quick glance on our lineup highlights how much this hurt this team. Even though Brassard had hit a wall, he was clearly the most skilled center on the team. Now our center corps looks very similar to last year's crew.

The center spot has plagued this team from its inception and continues to. Losing Brassard really puts pressure Howson to make a move to upgrade our top 6. But what does he have to trade? Could we deal our top pick, not knowing where we will end up?

Whatever happens, we need to improve our center depth for next year. The parity in the league will not make this an easy thing to do. Teams that are consistently good, develop their own centers.

If Howson upgrade at the center position our 09-10 roster may be our most complete to date, but that will not make the fanbase happy. We need the playoffs now. This is the first true test of Howson IMO. He had a honeymoon period to get the type of players he wanted. Now we have a competitive team that now has a huge hole.

Another consideration is with the salary cap, it may realistically fall next season. This could push some contract into play that usually would not be considered trade bait. However none of this will shuffle out until the deadline. Only the Isles and Thrashers should be looking at 09-10 right now and their depth at center is comparable to our current crew.

What needs to be done? Patience or Action? Is their a market for action?